Shop

subs. and verb. (colloquial).—1.  Generic for a place: of residence, business, manufacture, engagement, or resort (in quot. 1590 = the body); and (2) one’s profession, business or occupation. Spec. (old, and thieves’) = (3) a prison (B. E. and GROSE): whence, as verb. = to imprison, to confine (B. E. and GROSE); 4. (army) = a guardroom: also see quot. 1890; and 5. (racing) a place: whence TO BE SHOPPED (or GET A SHOP) = to come in first, second, or third; and (6) to kill, TO BURKE (q.v.). Whence, TO TALK SHOP = to talk business in society: Fr. parler boutique; TO SINK THE SHOP = to refrain from SHOP-TALK; SHOPPY (or FULL OF THE SHOP) = wholly engrossed in business matters; THE OTHER SHOP = a rival (trader, establishment, &c.).

  1548.  W. PATTEN, The Expedition into Scotland [ARBER (English Garner, iii. 86)]. They had likewise SHOPPED UP themselves in the highest of their house.

  1563.  FOXE, Acts and Monuments [CATTLEY], iv. 652 [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 541. Foxe wishes that More had kept himself in his own SHOP (profession); hence our ‘TALK SHOP’].

  1590.  SPENSER, The Fairie Queene, II. i. 43.

  1610.  SHAKESPEARE, Coriolanus, i. 1, 137.

  c. 1617.  HOWELL, Familiar Letters, I. iii. 30. The Liver … the SHOP and source of the Blood.

  1678.  Four for a Penny, in Harleian Miscellany (ed. PARK), IV., 147. A main part of his [a bum-bailiff’s] office is to swear and bluster … and cry, ‘Confound us, why do we wait? let us SHOP him.’

  1821.  P. EGAN, Life in London, II. iii. Public and other houses were explored without loss of time; and it was a poor SHOP indeed that did not produce some little amusement.

  1838.  DICKENS, Oliver Twist, xvi. It was Bartlemy time when I was SHOPPED.… Arter I was locked up for the night, the row and din outside made the thundering old jail so silent, that I could almost have beat my brains out against the iron plates of the door.

  1848.  A. H. CLOUGH, The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich, ii., l. 228. Three weeks hence we return to THE SHOP.

  1847–8.  THACKERAY, Vanity Fair, xxxiv. ‘What is THE OTHER SHOP, my dear child?’ said the lady. ‘Senior Wranglers at Cambridge, not Oxford,’ said the scholar. Ibid. (1855), The Newcomes, xliv. Now, when will you two gents come up to my SHOP to ’ave a family dinner?’

  1853.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, I. viii. Give us a song! It’s the punishment for TALKING SHOP, you know.

  1855.  GASKELL, North and South, ii. I don’t like SHOPPY people.

  1860.  Punch, xxxix. 177. He’s staid and he’s solemn, TALKS SHOP by the column.

  1861.  A. TROLLOPE, Framley Parsonage, viii. If we’re merely to do as we are bid, and have no voice of our own, I don’t see what’s the good of going to THE SHOP [House of Commons] at all.

  1861.  G. P. MARSH, Lectures on the English Language, First Series, xi. All men, except the veriest, narrowest pedants in their craft, avoid the language of the SHOP.

  1868.  WHYTE-MELVILLE, The White Rose, II. vii. Actors and actresses seem the only artists who are never ashamed of ‘TALKING SHOP.’ Ibid. (1869), M. or N., 258. If you was took, and SHOPPED, like him in the long boots, I’d go to quod with you, if they’d give me leave.

  1883.  JOSIAH QUINCY, Figures of the Past, 193. He ‘SUNK THE SHOP’; though this same ‘SHOP’ would have been a subject most interesting.

  1888.  BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xxiv. What sort of a SHOP is it? Are they getting much gold? Ibid., vi. We’ll all be SHOPPED if you run against the police like this.

  1889.  Rialto, 23 May. The latest term for the South African gold market is THE SHOP.

  1890.  Daily Chronicle, 4 April, 7, 2. THE SHOP is the name given in the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers to the Establishment which turns out the bulk of the officers of those two distinguished corps.

  1891.  Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 3 April. Then he went a raker on the favourite for the St. Leger, but the brute was not even SHOPPED.

  1892.  Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 28 Sept., 27, 2. In the long summer months, when the actor is ‘resting,’ the artiste is frequently out of a SHOP, as he terms his engagement.

  1897.  B. MITFORD, A Romance of the Cape Frontier, II. iii. And one heard such a lot of war SHOP talked. Ibid., II. xxiii. What was this cowardly, egotistical, ‘SHOPPY’ preacher to him?

  Verb. (workmen’s).—To work in a shop; whence SHOPPED = (1) in work, also (2) discharged.

  1867.  All the Year Round, 13 July, 56. There are many men who would regard themselves as ingrates were they not to celebrate their being ‘SHOPPED,’ after having been out of collar, by ‘a spree.’

  PHRASES.—TO SHUT UP SHOP = (1) to come to an end, to retire; (2) to cease talking: (cf. SHOP = body, SHUT UP, see quot. 1570); and (3) to finish, to ‘do for’; TO COME (or GO) TO THE WRONG SHOP = to make a mistake; ALL OVER THE SHOP = confused; awry.

  c. 1570.  GASCOIGNE, Works [CHALMERS, ii. 571]. Beautie SHUT UP THY SHOP [i.e., mouth].

  1630–40.  The Court and Times of Charles the First, II. 21. If it go on thus, the Commissioners may SHUT UP SHOP.

  1657.  MIDDLETON, Women beware Women, ii. 2. I’ll quite give o’er, and SHUT UP SHOP in cunning.

  1836.  DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, 289. And what does he want?… money? meat? drink? He ’s COME TO THE WRONG SHOP for that, if he does.

  1884.  Pall Mall Gazette, 29 Oct. Our mercantile marine would SHUT UP SHOP.

  1888.  Sporting Life, 13 Dec. The left eye, which had till now gradually closed, SHUT UP SHOP altogether.

  1893.  MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 63, ‘On Angling.’ Things seemed ALL OVER THE SHOP.