Sheriff’s picture frame. The gallows.
To sherk. To evade or disappoint: to sherk one’s duty.
To sherry. To run away: sherry off.
Shifting. Shuffling. Tricking.
Shifting cove; i.e. a
person who lives by tricking.
Shifting ballast. A term used by sailors,
to signify
soldiers, passengers, or any landsmen
on board.
SHILLALEY. An oaken sapling, or cudgel:
from a wood
of that name famous for its oaks.
Irish.
SHILLY-shally. Irresolute. To stand
shilly-shally; to
hesitate, or stand in doubt.
Shindy. A dance. Sea phrase.
Shine. It shines like a shitten barn door.
Ship shape. Proper, as it ought to be. Sea phrase,
Sh-T sack. A dastardly fellow:
also a non-conformist.
This appellation is said to have originated
from the
following story:—After the
restoration, the laws against
the non-conformists were extremely severe.
They
sometimes met in very obscure places:
and there is a tradition
that one of their congregations were assembled
in a barn,
the rendezvous of beggars and other vagrants,
where the
preacher, for want of a ladder or tub,
was suspended in
a sack fixed to the beam. His discourse
that day being
on the last judgment, he particularly
attempted to describe
the terrors of the wicked at the sounding
of the trumpet,
on which a trumpeter to a puppet-show,
who had taken
refuge in that barn, and lay hid under
the straw, sounded
a charge. The congregation, struck
with the utmost
consternation, fled in an instant from
the place, leaving
their affrighted teacher to shift for
himself. The effects
of his terror are said to have appeared
at the bottom of
the sack, and to have occasioned that
opprobrious appellation
by which the non-conformists were vulgarly
distinguished.
Sh-T-Ng through the teeth.
Vomiting. Hark ye,
friend, have you got a padlock on your
a-se, that you sh-te
through your teeth? Vulgar address
to one vomiting.
Shod all round. A parson who attends
a funeral is said
to be shod all round, when he receives
a hat-band, gloves,
and scarf: many shoeings being only
partial.
SHOEMAKER’S stocks. New, or strait
shoes. I was in
the shoemaker’s stocks; i.e.
had on a new pair of shoes
that were too small for me.
To SHOOLE. To go skulking about.
To shoot the cat. To vomit
from excess of liquor;
called also catting.
Shop. A prison. Shopped; confined, imprisoned.
Shoplifter. One that steals whilst pretending
to purchase
goods in a shop.


