A skeleton key; the servant of a picklock. Burglars call their short crowbars for forcing locks Jennies and Jemmies. “Jenny” is a “small engine,” i.e. ʹginie, and Jemmy is merely a variant.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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