1603. Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, i. 2. There went but a pair of sheers between us.
1623. Fletcher and Rowley, Maid of the Mill. There went but a pair of sheers and a bodkin between them.
1630. Overbury, Charact., 34. There went but a paire of sheeres between him and the pursuivant of hell, for they both delight in sinne.
1630. Taylor, Works, i. 103. And some report that both these fowles have scene Their like, that's but a payre of sheeres between.
1633. Rowley, Match at Midnight [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), vii. 367]. Why there goes but a pair of sheers between a promoter and a knave.
See Knight.
Sheath, subs. (venery).—1. The
female pudendum: see Monosyllable.
2. (venery).—The prepuce or foreskin.
Shebang, subs. (American).—See
quots.
1861-5. [Bartlett, Dict. Americanisms, s.v. Shebang]. A strange word that had its origin during the late civil war. It is applied alike to a room, a shop, or a hut, a tent, a cabin; an engine-house.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, . . . Shebang . . . used even yet by students of Yale College and elsewhere to designate their rooms or a theatrical or other performance in a public hall, has its origin probably in a corruption of the French cabane, a hut, familiar to the troops that came from Louisiana, and constantly used in the Confederate camp for the simple huts, which they built with such alacrity and skill for their winter-quarters.
1872. Clemens, Roughing It, xlvii. There'll be a kerridge for you . . . We've got a shebang fixed up for you to stande behind.
1899. Binstead, Hounsditch Day by Day, 198. In a four-wheeled fever box you must take your beaver on your knees or get it hopelessly ruffled against the roof of the old shebang.
1902. Savage, Brought to Bay, ii. To-night, at your own shebang, alone.
Shebeen, subs. (Irish and Scots').—(1)
Any unlicensed place where
excisable liquors are sold; whence
(2) a low (or wayside) public-house.
Also as verb., shebeening,
and shebeener: the last
term applies to persons frequenting
as well as to those keeping a
shebeen.
c.1787. Kilmainham Minit [Ireland Sixty Years Ago (1847) 88]. With de stuff to a shebeen we hied.
1818. Lady Morgan, Flora Macarthy, 1. ii. 105. Fitted up a couple of bedrooms in what had lately been a mere shebeen house.
1841. Lever, Charles O'Malley, vii. A little country ale-house, or in Irish parlance, shebeen, which stood at the meeting of four bleak roads.
1845. Buckstone, Green Bushes, i. 2. Have you been to the shebeen.
1870. Figaro, 14 Dec. Three extensive captures of shebeeners were made in Glasgow on Sunday. One hundred and twenty persons were found in the dens. . . . Why are shebeens and shebeeners so numerous in the North?
1873. Scotsman. 15 Feb. TO OWNERS of INNS, HOTELS, and PUBLIC-HOUSES.-XXX. (who is a brother Innkeeper) thinks it high time that we form an ASSOCIATION to protect ourselves against Grocers, Shebeeners, and others who sell LIQUORS which are consumed on their Premises, and who hold no Licence to do so. Suggestions, &c. . . .
1883. Jay, Connaught Cousins, 1. i. 22. There is a little shebeen close by where we will take a rest.
1892. D. Chronicle, 17 Aug., 3, 7. CARDIFF. The designation of this town as "The City of Shebeens," was further justified to-day.
Shed, verb. (provincial).—To piss
(q.v.): also to shed a tear.
To shed a tear, verb. phr.—To take a drink: originally to take a dram of real or short (q.v.).
1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, 156. I always made time to call in and shed a tear with him for convenience and 'days o' lang syne.'
