Chapter Shandygaff to Shells of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Shandygaff to Shells

Shandygaff is a mixture of beer and ginger-beer. (See Smiler .)

Shanks' Nag To ride Shanks' nag is to go on foot, the shanks being the legs. A similar phrase is “Going by the marrow-bone stage” or by Walker's `bus. (Anglo-Saxon, scoanca, shanks.)

Shannon Dipped in the Shannon. One who has been dipped in the Shannon loses all bashfulness. At least, sic aiunt.

Shanty A log-hut. (Irish, sean, old: tig, house.)

Shanty Songs Songs sung by sailors at work, to ensure united action. They are in sets, each of which has a different cadence adapted to the work in hand. Thus, in sheeting topsails, weighing anchor, etc., one of the most popular of the shanty songs runs thus: -

“I'm bound away, this very day,
I'm bound for the Rio Grande.
Ho, you, Rio!
Then fare you well, my bonny blue bell,
I'm bound for the Rio Grande.”

(French, chanter, to sing; a sing-song.)

Shark A swindler, a pilferer; one who snaps up things like a shark, which eats almost anything, and seems to care little whether its food is alive or dead, fish, flesh, or human bodies.

“These thieves doe rob us with our owne good will,
And have Dame Nature's warrant for it still;
Sometimes these sharks doe worke each other's wrack,
The ravening belly often robs the backe.”
Taylor's Workes, ii. 117.

   The shark flies the feather. This is a sailor's proverb founded on observation. Though a shark is so voracious that it will swallow without distinction everything that drops from a ship into the sea, such as cordage, cloth, pitch, wood, and even knives, yet it will never touch a pilot-fish (q.v.) or a fowl, either alive or dead. It avoids sea-gulls, sea-mews, petrels, and every feathered thing. (St. Pierre: Studies, i.)

Sharp (Becky). The impersonation of intellect without virtue in Thackeray's Vanity Fair. (See Sedley .)

“Becky Sharp, with a baronet for a brother-in-law and an earl's daughter for a friend, felt the hollowness of human grandeur, and thought she was happier with the Bohemian artists in Soho.” - The Express.

Sharp Sharp's the word. Look out, keep your eyes open and your wits about you. When a shopman suspects a customer, he will ask aloud of a brother-shopman if “Mr. Sharp is come in;” and if his suspicion is confirmed, will receive for answer, “No, but he is expected back immediately.” (Holten.)

Sharp-beak The Crow's wife in the tale of Reynard the Fox.

Sharp-set Hungry. A term in falconry. (See Hawk .)

“If anie were so sharpe-set as to eat fried flies, buttered bees, stued snails, either on Fridaie or Sundaie, he could not be therefore indicated of haulte treason.” - Stanihurst: Ireland, p. 10(1580).

Shave To shave a customer. Hotten says, when a master-draper sees anyone capable of being imposed upon enter his shop, he strokes his chin, to signify to his assistant that the customer may be shaved.
   I shaved through; he was within a shave of a pluck. I just got through [my examination]; he was nearly rejected as not up to the mark. The allusion is to carpentry.

Shaveling A lad; a young man. In the year 1348 the clergy died so fast of the Black Death that youths were admitted to holy orders by being shaven. “William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, dispensed with sixty shavelings to hold rectories and other livings, that divine service might not cease in the parishes over which they were appointed. (Blomfield: History of Norfolk, vol. iii.)

Shaving Bondmen were commanded by the ancient Gauls to shave, in token of servitude.
   In the Turkish seraglio the slaves are obliged to shave their chins, in token of their servitude.

She Stoops to Conquer This comedy owes its existence to an incident which actually occurred to its author. When Goldsmith was sixteen years of age, a wag residing at Ardagh directed him, when passing