adj. and adv. (orig. university: now generally colloquial).—Generic for decadence and deterioration, moral, physical, and material. Hence, ON THE SHADY SIDE OF [e.g., 40] = beyond (or older) than 40 years of age; TO KEEP SHADY (American) = to keep in the background, to be cautious and reticent.
1848. A. H. CLOUGH, The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich, i., l. 24. SHADY in Latin, said Lindsay, but topping in Plays and Aldrich.
1852. BRISTED, Five Years in an English University, 147. Some … are rather SHADY in Greek and Latin.
1863. H. KINGSLEY, Austin Elliot, xii. Hayton had come for his hour’s logic…. Hayton was the only “SHADY” man of the lot; the only “pass” man of the whole.
1864. The Spectator, 15 Oct., 1186. The University word “SHADY,” meaning simply, poor and inefficient, as when a man is said to be “SHADY in Latin, but topping in Greek plays,” is obviously University slang.
1874. J. HATTON, Clytie, III. xiii. No more seedy clients, no more SHADY cases; Simon Cuffing shall be known for his intense respectability.
1883. HAWLEY SMART, At Fault, III. vii. Mr. Andernore engaged in a good many transactions that, though not illegal exactly, were of the kind denominated SHADY.
1886. Daily Telegraph, 11 Sept. The public might be misled into subscribing to a SHADY undertaking. Ibid., (1888), 30 Nov. Between these, however, and the SHADIEST pickpocket who calls himself a Count there are infinite degrees of assumption and sham.
1897. MARSHALL, ‘Pomes,’ 8. If this isn’t a SHADY lot. Ibid., 9. And luck of the SHADIEST sort.
THE SHADY GROVES OF THE EVANGELIST, subs. phr. (London).—St. John’s Wood. [A favourite haunt of loose women.]
