1611. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1. 'Tis a question whether there be any silver shells amongst them, for all their satin outsides.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 27. Who knows but if coax'd, he may shell out the shiners.
1821. Egan, Life in London, II. iii. Another kevarten . . . and if you are too scaly to tip for it, I'll shell out.
1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. xxxvii. Maybe you'll treat, won't you, if I shell out, fair; all't I know o' the matter?
1829. Old Song, 'The Prigging Lay' [Vidocq's Memoirs, iv.]. Quickly draw the bolt of your ken, Or we'll not shell out a mag.
1844. Selby, London by Night, i. 1. By the bye, Shadrack, you must shell out at once for contingencies.
d. 1849. Edgeworth, Love and Law, I. 1. Will you be kind enough, sir, to shell out for me the price of a daacent horse fit to mount a man like me.
1855. Barnum, Autobiography, 195. At the same time motioning to his trembling victim to shell out.
1860. Cassell's Mag., 4 Jan., 211. The grave shan't keep me quieter than the fifty suverins which Mr. Hewitt . . . will shell out in the morning.
1892. Nisbet, Bushranger's Sweetheart, 75. And after they have shelled out, what happens?
1902. Headon Hill, Caged, xiii. Are you prepared to keep on shelling out over her till kingdom come?
5. (old).—A drinking glass.
See Brown Shell.
Shell-back, subs. phr. (nautical).—A
sailor: also old shell.
1883. Graphic, 12 May, 487, 3. The marine was described as a joey, a jolly, a shellback.
1884. Russell, Jack's Courtship, i. It takes a sailor a long time to straighten his spine and get quit of the bold sheer that earns him the name of shell-back.
1885. Runciman, Skippers and Shellbacks [Title].
1901. Walker, In the Blood, 29. All excepting the captain, who was a regular quiet old shell-back.
1902. Athenæum, 8 Feb., 176, 3. Any one of a dozen gaunt and hungry shell-backs in the forecastle would have supported him.
Shell-out, subs. phr. (billiards).—A
variety of pool.
1882. Braddon, Mount Royal, xxv. Refraining from the relaxation of pool, or shell-out—opining that the click of the balls might have an unholy sound so soon after a funeral.
S'help. See S'welp.
Shelta. A kind of cryptic Irish
spoken by tinkers and confirmed
tramps; a secret jargon composed
chiefly of Gaelic words disguised
by changes of initial,
transposition of letters, back-slanging
and similar devices.
[Discovered by C. G. Leland and
announced to the world in his
book The Gypsies (1882); in 1886
there was a correspondence on
the subject in The Academy; in
1889 The Gypsy Lore Society
was started and several articles on
Shelta appeared in its Journal;
finally in Chamber's Encyclopædia
(1902) there is a long account
of this once mysterious but
now fully explained speech.]
Shelve, verb. (printers').—To hold
over part of the weekly bill; the
reverse of horsing (q.v.).
Shemozzle (Shimozzel or
Shlemozzle), subs. (East End).—A
difficulty.
1899. Binstead, Hounsditch Day by Day. It was through no recklessness or extravagance that he was in this shlemozzle.
1900. From the Front, 183. We might look upon this little chimozzle as a kind of misunderstanding.
1901. J. Maclaren Cobban, Golden Tooth, 170. If Will comes out of this shemozzle.
Verb. (East End).—To be off; to decamp.
