1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, xiii. If 'Sennacherib' breaks down, and Blanche Kettering fights shy, . . . have I not still got something to fall back upon?
1860. Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller, x. 60. Nothing in shy neighbourhoods perplexes my mind more than the bad company birds keep.
1864. H. J. Byron, Paid in Full, v. Hadn't shy turf-transactions been more than hinted at.
1865. Glasgow Herald, 23 Sept. The guests shy all European topics.
1870. D. Telegraph, 7 Feb. The reader who wades through the rather hopeful jungle of the title-page, will certainly shy at Mr. Beste's preface.
Shyster, subs. (American).—1.
See quot. 1859. 2. (common) =
a swindler, duffer, or vagabond:
a generic term (1903) of contempt.
1857. New York Tribune, 13 Mar. The shysters or Tombs lawyers . . . sought to intercede for their clients; but the magistrates would listen to no appeals.
1859. Bartlett, Americanism (1896), 590, s.v. Shyster, a set of men who hang about the police courts of New York and other large cities, and practise in them as lawyers, but who in many cases have never been admitted to the bar. They are men who have served as policemen, turnkeys, sheriffs officers, or in any capacity by which they have become familiar with criminals and criminal courts.
1864. D. Telegraph, 26 July. Shyster who goes to bed in his boots.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms,. . . This is the shyster. . . . Ill-reputed men [who] offer their services to the new-comer, compel him to pay a fee in advance, and then—do nothing. On the contrary, they fight shy of him, and hence they have obtained their name.
1877. Mark, Green Past., xli. They held aloof from ordinary society—looked on a prominent civic official as a mere shyster—and would have nothing to do with a system of local government controlled by 30,000 bummers, loafers, and dead-beats.
1882. McCabe, New York, xxv. 417-8. If the prisoner has no money, the shyster will take his pay out in any kind of personal property that can be pawned or sold.
1902. Boothby, Uncle Joe's Legacy, 98. The shyster lawyer, the bigamist Henry Druford, and last but not least . . . the company promoter.
Sice, subs. (Old Cant).—Sixpence:
see Rhino (B. E. and Grose).
1672. Covent Garden Drollery, 'Greenwich Strowlers.' The prizes they took, were a Londoner's groat, A Gentleman's sice, but his skipkennel's pot.
1688. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia. [In list of cant words.]
d.1704. Brown, Works, ii. 266. Some pretty nymphs . . . but are sometimes forced to tick half a sice a-piece for their watering.
1707. Ward, Hud. Rediv., ii. iii. 27. For who'd not readily advance A sice to see the Devil dance.
1840. Lytton, Paul Clifford, iii. As Mrs. Lobkins expressed it, two bobs for the Latin, and a sice for the vartue!
Sick, adj. (colloquial).—In its
primary, extended, and old literary
sense (as in the Bible and
Shakspeare), sick (= disabled by
disease or bad health) now
borders on the colloquial, having
been superseded by "ill," whilst
sick is confined to vomiting or
nausea. There are also exceptional
usages. Thus sick (=
muddy) wine; sick (= stale)
fish; a sick hand (at cards,
esp. whist = without trumps); a
sick (= pale) look; a sick (=
ruffled) temper, &c. Also, 'It
makes me sick (or gives me
the sick)' = 'I am disgusted
with it'; sick as a horse (dog,
rat, cat, cushion, or what not)
= sick as may be (Grose); sick
of the idles (the Lombard
fever, or the idle crick and
the belly work in the heel,
Ray) = 'a pretence to be idle
upon no apparent cause'; to
speak in the sick tune = to
affect sickness; sickly (adv.) =
untoward or disgusting; sickrel
