or mushroom-faker, mush-topper-faker.—See quot. 1851. MUSHFAKING = mending umbrellas.
1821. D. HAGGART, Life, 56. Tommy Twenty, a MUSH-TOPER-FAKER.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, ii. 28. In Umbrellas and Parasols the second-hand traffic is large, but those vended in the streets are nearly all ‘done up’ for street-sale by the class known as ‘MUSH,’ or more properly ‘MUSHROOM FAKERS.’ Idem., ii. 127. The umbrella-menders are known by an appellation of an appropriateness not uncommon in street language. They are MUSHROOM-FAKERS. The form of the expanded umbrella resembles that of a mushroom, and it has the further characteristic of being rapidly or suddenly raised, the MUSHROOM itself springing up and attaining its full size in a very brief space of time. The term, however, like all street or popular terms or phrases, has become very generally condensed among those who carry on the trade—they are now MUSH-FAKERS, a word which, to any one who has not heard the term in full, is as meaningless as any in the vocabulary of slang.
1893. P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, 91. My old man … got his dudder by chinay-faking and MUSH-FAKING.
