shelf
"on the SHELF," not yet disposed of; young ladies are said to be so situated when they cannot meet with husbands. "On the SHELF" also means pawned, or laid by in trust.
English · UK & Ireland 2057
All languages English Tiếng Việt
Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
shepherd
To look after carefully, to place under police surveillance.
sheriff's ball
An execution. To dance at the sheriff's ball, and loll out one's tongue at the company; to be hanged, or go to rest in a horse's night-cap, i.e. a halter.
sherwood’s
Gazetteer of Georgia, U.S., 8vo.
shice
Nothing; "to do anything for SHICE," to get no payment. The term was first used by the Jews in the last century. Grose gives the phrase CHICE-AM-A-TRICE, which has a synonymous meaning. Spanish, CHICO, little; Anglo-Saxon, CHICHE, niggardly; or perhaps connected with the German, SCHEISSEN.
shicer
A mean man, a humbug, a "duffer,"—a worthless person, one who will not work. This is the worst term one Jew can use to another. At the diggings it means a hole which yields nothing.
shickery
Shabby, bad. From SHAKY, SHAKERY.
shickster
A lady. See SHAKESTER.
shickster-crabs
Ladies’ shoes.—Tramps’ term.
shifting
Shuffling. Tricking. Shifting cove; i.e. a person who lives by tricking.
shifting ballast
A term used by sailors, to signify soldiers, passengers, or any landsmen on board.
shigs
Money, silver.—East London.
shikaree
A hunter, a sportsman.—Anglo-Indian. An English sportsman who has seen many ups and downs in jungles of the East styles himself "an OLD SHIKAREE."—Anglo-Indian. Also spelt SHEKARRY.
shillaley
An oaken sapling, or cudgel: from a wood of that name famous for its oaks. IRISH.
shilly-shally
Irresolute. To stand shilly-shally; to hesitate, or stand in doubt.
shilly-shally
To trifle or fritter away time; to be irresolute. Corruption of "Shall I, shall I?"
shin
An Americanism for walking. "I’m tired of SHINNING around."
shin-plaster
A bank-note. Originally an Americanism.
shindy
A dance. SEA PHRASE.
shindy
A row, or noise. A SHINDY generally means a regular mêlée.
shine
It shines like a shitten barn door.
shine
A row, or disturbance.
shiners
Sovereigns, or money.
shiney rag
"to win the SHINEY RAG," to be ruined,—said in gambling, when any one continues betting after "luck has set in against him."
shins
"To break one’s SHINS," figurative expression meaning to borrow money.
ship shape
Proper, as it ought to be. SEA PHRASE,
ship-shape
Proper, in good order; sometimes the phrase is varied to "SHIP-SHAPE and Bristol fashion."—Sea. The latter portion of the expression went out with Bristol’s fame as a seaport.
shirty
Ill-tempered, or cross. When one person makes another in an ill-humour he is said to have "got his SHIRT out."
shockhead
A head of long, unkempt, and rough hair.
shod all round
A parson who attends a funeral is said to be shod all round, when he receives a hat-band, gloves, and scarf: many shoeings being only partial.
shoddy
Old cloth worked up into new; made from soldiers’ and policemen’s coats. The old cloth is pulled to pieces, the yarn unravelled and carded over again. This produces shoddy, which is very short in the fibre, and from it are produced, on again twisting and weaving, cloth fabrics used for ladies’ mantles, &c. Also, a term of derision applied to workmen in woollen factories.—Yorkshire.
shoe
To free or initiate a person,—a practice common in most trades to a new-comer. The SHOEING consists in paying for beer, or other liquor, which is drunk by the older hands. The cans emptied, and the bill paid, the stranger is considered properly SHOD. SHOEING is a variation of "paying one’s footing."
shoe leather!
A thief’s warning cry when he hears footsteps. This exclamation is used in the spirit which animated the friend who, when he suspected treachery towards Bruce at King Edward’s court, in 1306, sent him a purse and a pair of spurs, as a sign that he should use them in making his escape.
shoemaker's stocks
New, or strait shoes. I was in the shoemaker's stocks; i.e. had on a new pair of shoes that were too small for me.
shoes
"to die in one’s SHOES," to be hanged. In the old hanging days a highwayman would often kick off his shoes when the rope was round his neck, so as—oh, vain and impotent attempt!—to defeat the prophecy that had foreshadowed his present position.
shoes, children’s, to make
To suffer oneself to be made sport of, or depreciated. Commonly used in Norfolk.—Cf. Mrs. Behn’s comedy, The Roundheads.
shoful
A Hansom cab. This favourite carriage was the invention of a Mr. Hansom, afterwards connected with the Builder newspaper. It has been asserted that the term SHOFUL was derived from "shovel," the earliest slang term applied to Hansoms by other cab-drivers, who conceived their shape to be after the fashion of a scoop or shovel. A logical friend of the present Editor’s argues thus:—SHOFUL, full of show, ergo, beautiful—handsome—Hansom.
shoful pullet
A "gay" or unsteady woman, especially a young woman.
shoful-pitcher
A passer of bad money. SHOFUL-PITCHING, passing bad money. "Snide-pitcher" and "Snide-pitching" are terms exchangeable with the preceding.
sholl
To bonnet one, or crush a person’s hat over his eyes.—North.
shool
To saunter idly, to become a vagabond, to beg rather than work.—Smollett’s Roderick Random, vol. i., p. 262.
shoot the cat
To vomit.
shop
A prison. Shopped; confined, imprisoned.
shop
In racing slang, to secure first, second, or third position in a race, is to get a SHOP. This is also known as a place, and as a situation. See PLACE.
shop-bouncer
Or SHOP-LIFTER, a person generally respectably attired, who, while being served with a small article at a shop, steals one of more value. Shakspeare has the word LIFTER, a thief.
shop-walker
A person employed to walk up and down a shop, to hand seats to customers, and see that they are properly served. Contracted also to WALKER.
shoplifter
One that steals whilst pretending to purchase goods in a shop.
shopping
Purchasing at shops. Termed by Todd a slang word, but used by Cowper and Byron.
shoppy
To be full of nothing but one’s own calling or profession; "to talk SHOP," to converse of nothing but professional subjects.
short
When spirit is drunk without any admixture of water, it is said to be taken "SHORT;" "summat SHORT," a dram. A similar phrase is used at the counters of banks; upon presenting a cheque, the clerk asks, "How will you take it?" i.e., in gold, or notes. If in notes, long or short? Should it be desired to receive it in notes for the largest possible amount, the answer is, SHORT.
short commons
Short allowance of food. See COMMONS.
short-heeled wench
A girl apt to fall on her back.
shorter
One who makes a dishonest profit by reducing the coin of the realm by clipping and filing. From a crown-piece a SHORTER could gain 5d. Another way was by chemical means: a guinea laid in aquafortis would, in twelve hours, precipitate 9d.-worth of sediment; in twenty-four, 1s. 6d.-worth.—Rommany Rye.
shot
To pay one's shot; to pay one's share of a reckoning. Shot betwixt wind and water; poxed or clapped.
shot
From the modern sense of the word to SHOOT,—a guess, a random conjecture; "to make a bad SHOT," to expose one’s ignorance by making a wrong guess, or random answer, without knowing whether it is right or wrong.
shotten herring
A thin meagre fellow.
shoulder
When a servant embezzles his master’s money, he is said to SHOULDER his employer.
shoulder clapper
A bailiff, or member of the catch club. Shoulder-clapped; arrested.
shoulder feast
A dinner given after a funeral, to those who have carried the corpse.
shoulder sham
A partner to a file. See FILE.