1610. Shakespeare, Coriol., i. 1, 137. I [the belly] am the storehouse and the shop Of the whole body.
c.1617. Howell, Letters, 1. iii. 30. The Liver . . . the Shop and source of the Blood.
1678. Four for a Penny [Harl. Misc. iv. 147]. A main part of his office [a bum-bailiff's] is to swear and bluster at their trembling prisoners, and cry, 'Confound us, why do we wait? Let us shop him!'
1821. Egan, Life in London, ii. iii. Public and other houses were explored without loss of time; and it was a poor shop indeed that did not produce some little amusement.
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, xvi. It was Bartlemy time when I was shopped. . . . Arter I was locked up for the night, the row and din outside made the thundering old jail so silent, that I could almost have beat my brains out.
c.1840. A. Clough, Long Vacation Pastoral. Three weeks hence we return to the shop.
1847-8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xxxiv. 'What is the other shop?' said the lady . . . 'Cambridge, not Oxford,' said the scholar. Ibid. (1855), Newcomes, xliv. Now, when will you two gents come up to my shop to 'ave a family dinner?'
1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, 1. viii. Give us a song! It's the punishment for talking shop, you know.
1855. Gaskell, North and South, ii. I don't like shoppy people.
1860. Punch, xxxix. 177. He's staid and he's solemn, talks shop by the column.
1861. Trollope, Framley Parsonage If we . . . have no voice of our own, I don't see what's the good of our going to the shop [House of Commons] at all.
1861. G. P. Marsh, Lect. on the Eng. Lang., xi. All men, except the veriest, narrowest pedants in their craft, avoid the language of the shop.
d.1864. Josiah Quincy, Figures of the Past, 193. He sunk the shop; though this same shop would have been a subject most interesting.
1868. Whyte-Melville, White Rose, 11. vii. Actors and actresses seem the only artists who are never ashamed of talking shop. Ibid. (1869), M. or N. If you was took and shopped . . . I'd go to quod with you if they'd give me leave.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxiv. What sort of a shop is it? Are they getting much gold? Ibid., vi. We'll all be shopped if you run against the police like this.
1889. Rialto, 23 May. The latest term for the South African gold market is the shop.
1890. D. Chronicle, 4 Apr., 7, 2. The shop is the name given in the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers to the Establishment which turns out the bulk of the officers of those two distinguished corps.
1891. Lic. Vict. Gaz., 3 Apr. Then he went a raker on the favourite for the St. Leger, but the brute was not even shopped.
1892. Cassell's Saty. Jl., 28 Sep., 27, 2. In the long summer months, when the actor is 'resting,' the artiste is frequently out of a shop, as he terms his engagement.
1897. Mitford, Romance of Cape Frontier, ii. iii. And one heard such a lot of war shop talked. Ibid., ii. xxiii. What was this cowardly, egotistical, shoppy preacher to him?
Verb. (workmen's).—To work in a shop; whence shopped = (1) in work, also (2) discharged.
1867. All Year Round, 13 July, 56. There are many men who would regard themselves as ingrates, were they not to celebrate their being shopped, after having been out of collar, by a spree.
Phrases.—To shut up shop = (1) to come to an end, to retire; (2) to cease talking: (cf. shop = body, shut up, see quot. 1570); and (3) to finish, to 'do for'; to come (or go) to the wrong shop = to make a mistake; all over the shop = confused; awry.
c.1570. Gascoigne, Works [Chalmers, ii. 571]. Beautie shut up thy shop [i.e. mouth].
1630-40. Court and Times Chas. I., ii. 21. If it go on thus, the Commissioners may shut up shop.
1657. Middleton, Women Beware Women, ii. 2. I'll quite give o'er, and shut up shop in cunning.
