1836. Dickens, Sketches, 289. And what does he want? . . . money? meat? drink? He's come to the wrong shop for that, if he does.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Oct. Our mercantile marine would shut up shop.
1888. Sp. Life, 13 Dec. The left eye, which had till now gradually closed, shut up shop altogether.
1893. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 63. Things seemed all over the shop.
Shopkeeper, subs. (traders').—An
article long in stock: sometimes
old shopkeeper.
Shop-lift (-lifter, or -bouncer),
subs. phr. (old).—'One that steals
under Pretence of Cheap'ning'
(B. E.: also Head, Dyche,
Grose, and Snowden): cf. lift.
Hence shop-lifting and similar
compounds.
1678. Four for a Penny [Harl. Misc. iv. 147]. He is the treasurer of the thieves' exchequer, the common fender of all balkers and shop-lifts in the town.
1703. Ward, London Spy, v. 108. The Light finger'd subtlety of shop-lifting.
1704. Swift, Tale of a Tub, Sect. vi. Like a discovered shop-lifter, left to the mercy of Exchange women.
1748. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.) s.v. Lifter. Also one that goes into mercers or drapers shops under pretence of buying goods, and so conveys some away privately, is called a shop-lifter.
1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, 1. xi. More honest, well-meaning people were bubbled out of their goods and money by it in one twelve-month than by pocket-picking and shop-lifting in seven.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, 11. viii. Sally Wells, who was afterwards lagged for shoplifting.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, liii. There are children who are accomplished shop-lifters and liars almost as soon as they can toddle and speak.
Shopocracy, subs. (colloquial).—The
world of shopkeepers: cf.
mobocracy, shamocracy, &c.
1853. Mrs. Gaskell, Ruth, xxxiii. The belles of the shopocracy of Eccleston.
18[?]. Notes and Queries [Ency. Dict.]. Shopocracy . . . belongs to an objectionable class of words, the use of which is very common at the present day.
Shoppy, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—1.
Commercial; (2) full of
shops; and (3) see Shop.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., 1. 292. Thoroughfares which are well-frequented, but which . . . are not so shoppy as others.
1855. Gaskell, North and South, xi. You were always accusing people of being shoppy.
Shop-shift, subs. phr. (old).—A
tradesman's trick (Jonson:
'There's a shop-shift! plague
on 'em!')
Shop-'un, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A
'boxed' or 'pickled' egg:
as distinguished from 'new-laid.'
1878. Byron, Our Boys, Perkin Middlewick. [Looking at eggs] . . . I knows 'em! Shop-'uns! Sixteen a shilling!
1893. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 62. About colds, and cock-salmons and shop 'uns; it's one of the rummiest sights.
Shoreditch (The Duke of).—A
mock title: see quots.
b.1547. [Ellis, Hist. of Shoreditch, 170]. When Henry VIII. became king he gave a prize at Windsor to those who should excel in this exercise [archery], when Barlo, one of his guards, an inhabitant of Shoreditch, acquired such honour as an archer that the king created him Duke of Shoreditch on the spot. This . . . title continued so late as 1683.
1603. Poore Man's Peticion to the Kinge. Good king, make not good Lord of Lincoln Duke of Shorditche, for he is a . . .
Shoreditch-fury, subs. phr.
(obsolete).—A harlot: see Tart.
1599. Hall, Satires, 1. ix. 21. What if some Shoreditch fury should incite some lust-stung lecher.
