b. 1859. Providence Jl. [Bartlett]. She was shadowed, and her ways of life ascertained.
1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London. She's a dress-woman . . . one . . . they tog out that they may show off at their best, and make the most of their faces. They can't trust 'em . . . you might tell that by the shadder.
1876. New York Herald, 23 Mar. Barr was decoyed . . . by a member of the secret service, who shadowed him.
1888. Pinkerton, Midnight Express, 23. A man had shadowed the detective since his departure from the railway office.
1891. G. F. Griffiths [Tr. Fouard, Christ, The Son of God, i. 238]. He was shadowed by spies, who were stirring up the crowd against Him.
1897. Weekly Dispatch, 24 Oct., 2. 4. They proved to be two well-known and expert burglars . . . and the shadowing was continued for several days, the police hoping to secure the receiver.
1902. Lynch, High Stakes, xxviii. It is not a shadowing expedition. It is a hold-up.
2. (Westminster School).—See quot.
1867. Collins, Public Schools, 187. When a boy is first placed in the school, he is attached to another boy in the same form, something in the relation of an apprentice. The new boy is called the shadow, the other the 'substance.' In the first week the shadow follows the substance everywhere, takes his place next to him in class . . . and is exempt from any responsibility for his own mistakes in or out of school. During this interval of indulgence his patron is expected to initiate him in all the work of the school . . . in short to teach him by degrees to enter upon . . . a responsible existence of his own.
May your shadow never be (or grow) less, phr. (colloquial). = May you prosper!
1887. Referee, 2 Jan. The recipients . . . hope that Sara's shadow may never grow less.
Shadrach, subs. (founders').—A
mass of badly smelted iron. [Cf.
Daniel, iii. 26, 27.]
Shadscales (or Scales), subs.
(American).—See quot.
1875. American English [Cham. Journal, 25 Sept., 610]. Money has different names; as . . . shadscales, charms . . .
Shady, adj. and adv. (orig. University:
now generally colloquial.)—Generic
for decadence and
deterioration, moral, physical,
and material. Hence, on the
shady side of [e.g., 40] = beyond
(or older) than 40 years of
age; to keep shady (American)
= to keep in the background, to
be cautious and reticent.
1852. Bristed, Five Years in an Eng. University, 147. Some . . . are rather shady in Greek and Latin.
1862. Clough, The Bothee of Tober-Na-Vuolich. Shady in Latin, said Lindsay, but topping in Plays and Aldrich.
1863. Kingsley, Austin Elliott, xii. Hayton had come for his hour's logic . . . Hayton was the only shady man of the lot; the only "pass" man of the whole.
1864. Spectator, 1186. The University word shady meaning simply poor and inefficient, as when a man is said to be "shady in Latin but topping in Greek plays" is obviously University slang.
1874. Hatton, Clytie, 111. xiii. No more seedy clients, no more shady cases; Simon Cuffing shall be known for his intense respectability.
1883. Hawley Smart, At Fault, 111. vii. Mr. Andernore engaged in a good many transactions that, though not illegal exactly, were of the kind denominated shady.
1886. D. Telegraph, 11 Sep. The public might be misled into subscribing to a shady undertaking. Ibid. (1888), 30 Nov. Between these, however, and the shadiest pickpocket who calls himself a Count there are infinite degrees of assumption and sham.
1897. Marshall, 'Pomes,' 8. If this isn't a shady lot. Ibid., 9. And luck of the shadiest sort. '
The Shady Groves of the Evangelist, subs. phr. (London).—St. John's Wood. [A favourite haunt of loose women.]
