1630. Taylor, Works [Nares]. And let those shifters their own judges be, If they have not bin arrant thieves to me.
1637. Heywood, Royal King [Pearson, Works (1874), vi. 38]. He scorns to be a changeling or a shift.
1639. Fletcher, The Bloody Brother, iv. 2. "They have so little As well may free them from the name of shifter."
1659. Milton, Civil Power [Century]. Sly and shifting.
2. (thieves').—An alarm: as given by one thief in watching to another 'on the job.'—Vaux (1812).
Shifting-ballast, subs. phr. (old
nautical).—Landsmen on board
ship: spec. soldiers (Grose).
Shift-work (or Service), subs.
phr. (venery).—Fornication.
Shig, subs. (East End).—In pl. =
money: specifically silver. At
Winchester shig = a shilling
(Mansfield, c.1840).
Shiggers, subs. pl. (Winchester).—White
football trousers costing
10s.: see Shig.
Shikerry. See Shicer.
Shillagalee, subs. (American).—A
loafer.
Shilling. To take the King's
(or Queen's) shilling, verb.
phr. (colloquial).—To enlist.
c.1702. [Ashton, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne (1882-3), ii. 203]. The Queen's shilling once being taken . . . there was no help for the recruit unless he was bought out.
1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, ii. 3. Capt. P. Come my lads . . . the army is the place to make you men for ever. Pear. Captain, give me a shilling; I'll follow you.
Shilling-shocker (or -dreadful),
subs. phr. (literary).—A
sensation novel sold at a shilling:
a fashion initiated (1887) by
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab,
by Mr. Fergus Hume: cf. Penny-awful.
1885. Athenæum, 14 Nov., 638. Mr Stevenson is writing another shilling-dreadful.
1887. Ill. London News, 17 Sept., 349, 1. The three-volume novel may be dying out, as they tell us; but we have the shilling shocker rampant among us.
1890. Academy, 22 Feb., 130, 2. I have often wondered why the experiences of the Styrian arsenic-eaters . . . has not been utilised by the writer of some three-volume novel or shilling shocker.
Shilly-shally (also shally-shally),
verb. phr. (colloquial).—To
trifle; not to know one's
mind; to stand shilly-shally
= to be irresolute
(Grose). Hence shilly-shally
(or shilly-shallying) = indecision
[Shall I? Shall I?];
shilly-shallier = a trifler.
1630. Taylor, Works, iii. 3. There's no delay, they ne're stand shall I shall I: Hermogenes with Dallila doth dally.
1665. Howard, Committee, iii. Tell her your mind! ne'er stand shilly shally.
1699. Congreve, Way of the Worldy iii. 15. I don't stand shill I, shall I, then; if I say't, I'll do't.
1703. Steele, Tender Husband, iii. 1. Why should I stand shally-shally like a Country Bumpkin.
1709. King, Eagle and Robin, 92. Bob did not shill-I-shall-I go, Nor said one word of friend or foe.
1782. Burney, Cecilia, v. 119 [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 188. The shill I, shall I of Congreve becomes shilly shally].
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 27. I never stand shilly-shally: begone, you are free.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford (1854), 177. Your friends starve before your eyes, while you are shilly-shallying about your mistress.
