TO TAKE THE KING’S (or QUEEN’S) SHILLING, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To enlist.
c. 1702. [J. ASHTON, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne (1882–3), II. 203]. The QUEEN’S SHILLING once being taken … there was no help for the recruit unless he was bought out.
1706. FARQUHAR, The Recruiting Officer, ii. 3. Capt. P. Come my lads … the army is the place to make you men for ever…. Pear. … Captain, give me a SHILLING; I’ll follow you to the end of the world.
