subs. (American).—1. A tall dandy [BARTLETT: In allusion to the long-legged fowls from Shanghai, all the rage a few years ago].
1859. The Great Republic Magazine, Jan., 70. I degenerated into a fop, and became a SHANGHAI of the most exotic breed.
2. (Australian).—A catapult: also as verb.
3. (American).—See quot.
1880. Scribner’s Magazine, Jan., 365. The ‘SHANGHAI’ is the glaring daub required by some frame-makers for cheap auctions. They are turned out at so much by the day’s labor, or at from $12 to $24 a dozen, by the piece. All the skies are painted at once, then all the foregrounds. Sometimes the patterns are stenciled. The dealer attaches the semblance of some well-known name, of which there are several, and without initials.
3. (American).—See quot. 1871.
1871. DE VERE, Americanisms, 347. When the verb to SHANGHAI is applied to sailors, it refers not to the bird, but, according to a seaman’s statement, to the town of Shanghai, where the process so called is said to have been once very common. The latter consists in drugging the unlucky sailor, when he enjoys himself after a long cruise, on shore, and carrying him, while in a state of insensibility, to a vessel about to depart, where he finds himself upon his recovery, entered in all forms on the book.
1871. New York Tribune, 1 March. They would have been drugged, SHANGHAIED, and taken away from all means of making complaint.
