1857. Bradley, Verdant Green, 11. xi. Without hazarding his success by making bad shots, he contented himself by answering those questions only on which he felt sure.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford. Yes, you would have said so . . . if you had seen him trying to put Jack up behind. He made six shots.
1879. L. B. Milford, Cousins, i. It turned out to be a bad shot.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, 104. 'Won't you take a shot about Caloola, Mr. Marston?'
1900. Flynt, Tramps, 281. They had just returned from the hop-country, and their money was well poised for another shot at the growler.
Adv. (common).—Drunk: see Screwed. Also shot in the neck: see Shoot.
Verb (horse-copers').—To fake a horse: a dose of small shot gives a temporary appearance of sound-*windedness.
To pay the shot, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate: see Greens and Ride. Also see subs. 1.
c.1630. Broadside Ballad, 'The Jovial Companions' [Bagford Ball. (Brit. Mus.) i. 88.] He laid her on her Back, and paid her the shot Without ever a stiver of mony.
1635. Broadside Ballad, 'The Industrious Smith' [Rox. Ball. (Brit. Mus.), i. 159]. Old debts must be paid, O why should they not, The fellow went home to pay the old shot.
Intj. (Royal High School, Edin.).—A cry of warning at the approach of a master.
Phrases. Like a shot = quickly, at full drive; shot in the neck = drunk: see Screwed; shot in the tail (or giblets) = got with child; not by a long shot = hopelessly out of reckoning: whence a long shot = a bold attempt or large undertaking. Also see Shoot.
1853. Wh.-Melville, Digby Grand, x. An extremely abrupt conclusion . . . empties every bumper of blackstrap like a shot.
1886-96. Marshall, 'Pomes' [1897], 27. So Zippy went in for a long shot.
1893. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 21. Put us all square like a shot.
1897. Mitford, Romance of Cape Frontier, 1. i. Back I went like a shot.
Shot-clog. See Shot, subs. 1.
Shot-Soup, subs. phr. (nautical).—Bad
pea-soup.
Shotten-herring, subs. phr.
(old).—A term of contempt: spec.
a lean meagre fellow (Grose).
Hence, shotten-souled = despicable.
1598. Shakspeare, I. Hen. IV. ii. 4. 142. If manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am i a shotten herring.
1614. Fletcher, Wit without Money, iii. 4. Upbraid me with your benefits, you pilchers, You shotten-soul'd, slight fellows.
1639. Optick Glasse of Humours, 27. His conceit is as lanck as a shotten herring.
1640. Nabbes, Bride, sig. G ii. Thou art a shotten herring. Jackalent Spanyard.
Shoulder, verb. (old coaching).—See
quot. Hence shoulder-*stick
= a passenger not on the
way-bill: see Short-one and cf.
Swallow.
1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, 33. Shouldering, among coachmen and guards, is that species of cheating their employers in which they take the fares and pocket them, generally of such passengers as they overtake on the road, or who come across the country to the main road, and are not put down in the way-bill.
1886. Athenæum, 16 Jan., 99, 1. Some amusing anecdotes of what was known as shouldering are here related. This generation requires to be informed that the expression meant in coaching days allowing more than the number the coach authorized to carry was to ride in or upon
