subs. (old: still colloquial).—1. A reckoning; a share of expense (B. E. and GROSE). Hence (2) = money (generic): as SHOT IN THE LOCKER = money in hand, or at will. Also SHOT-BAG = a purse; SHOT-FREE = nothing to pay: also SCOT-FREE; SHOT-CLOG = a simpleton, tolerated because he is willing to pay reckonings; SHOT-FLAGON = ‘the hosts’ pot, given where the guests have drank above a shilling’s-worth of ale’ (HALLIWELL): whence SHOT-POT = one entitled to the SHOT-FLAGON; SHOT-SHIP = a company sharing and sharing alike; SHOT-SHARK = a waiter.
1591. GREENE, The Second Part of Conny-catching [Works, x. 47]. There he bestowed cheare and ipocras vpon them, drinking hard til the SHOT came to a noble.
1595. SHAKESPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 5. I’ll to the alehouse with you presently; where for one SHOT of five pence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes.
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Pagare lo scotto, to paie the SHOT or reckoning.
1599. JONSON, Every Man out of his Humour, v. 4. Where be these SHOT-SHARKS? Ibid. (1601), The Poetaster, i. 1. A gull, a rook, a SHOT-CLOG, to make suppers and be laughed at.
1604. DEKKER, The Honest Whore [Works (1873), ii. 51]. A brace of gulles, dwelling here in the city, came in, and paid all the SHOT.
1605. CHAPMAN, JONSON, &c., Eastward Hoe, i. 1. Thou common SHOT-CLOG, dupe of all companies.
1618. FIELD, Amends for Ladies, iii. 4. Well. Drawer, take your plate. For the reckoning there’s some of their cloaks: I will be no SHOT-LOG to such.
1630. T. ADAMS, The Fatal Banquet [The Title of the fourth part runs—] ‘The SHOT, or the wofull price which the wicked pay for the Feast of Vanitie.’
1715. CENTLIVRE, Gotham Election, iv. We give the treat, but they shall pay the SHOT.
1800. LAMB, Letter [to Coleridge, 6 Aug.]. I have the first volume, and truth to tell, six shillings is a broad SHOT.
1821. SCOTT, Kenilworth, xix. Are you to stand SHOT to all this good liquor.
1836. M. SCOTT, Tom Cringle’s Log, ii. I have wherewithal in the locker to pay my SHOT.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (The Cynotaph) (1862), 74.
| As he bolted away without paying his SHOT, | |
| And the Landlady after him hurried. |
1847–8. THACKERAY, Vanity Fair, xxvi. My wife shall travel like a lady. As long as there’s a SHOT IN THE LOCKER she shall want for nothing.
1848. DURIVAGE, Stray Subjects, 57. Depositing the ‘tin’ in his ‘SHOT-BAG.’
1851. G. H. THROOP (‘Gregory Seaworthy’), Bertie, 42. Dew, if ye please; and I’ll al’ays do the fair thing, and stan’ SHOT till we git to Edentown.
1863. GASKELL, Sylvia’s Lovers, xxxiv. Bring him some victual, landlord. I’ll stand SHOT.
1880. G. R. SIMS, Three Brass Balls, Pledge xv. It shall never want a friend while I’ve a SHOT IN THE LOCKER.
3. (old).—A corpse.
4. (colloquial).—A guess; also (5) = an attempt, a venture.
1844. KINGLAKE, Eothen, viii. 137. I secretly smiled at this last prophecy as a bad SHOT.
1854. WHYTE-MELVILLE, General Bounce, xiii. ‘But here we are at Tattersall’s;’ … so now for ‘good information, long odds, a safe man, and a SHOT at the favourite!’
1857. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, II. xi. Without hazarding his success by making bad SHOTS, he contented himself by answering those questions only on which he felt sure.
1861. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown at Oxford, I. vi. Yes, you would have said so … if you had seen him trying to put Jack up behind. He made six SHOTS.
1879. L. B. MILFORD, Cousins, i. It turned out to be a bad SHOT.
1891. N. GOULD, The Double Event, 104. ‘Won’t you take a SHOT about Caloola, Mr. Marston?’
1900. FLYNT, Tramping with Tramps, 281. They had just returned from the hop-country, and their money was well poised for another ‘SHOT at the growler.’
Verb (horse-copers’).—To fake a horse: a dose of small shot gives a temporary appearance of sound-windedness.
c. 1630. The Jovial Companions, Broadside Ballad [Bagford (British Museum), i. 88].
| He laid her on her Back, and PAID her THE SHOT, | |
| without ever a stiver of Mony. |
1635. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Industrious Smith’ [Roxburghe Ballads (Brit. Mus.), i. 159].
| Old debts must be paid, O why should they not? | |
| The fellow went home to PAY THE old SHOT. |
Intj. (Royal High School, Edinburgh).—A cry of warning at the approach of a master.
PHRASES. LIKE A SHOT = quickly, at full drive; SHOT IN THE NECK = drunk: see SCREWED; SHOT IN THE TAIL (or GIBLETS) = got with child; NOT BY A LONG SHOT = hopelessly out of reckoning: whence A LONG SHOT = a bold attempt or large undertaking. Also see SHOOT.
1853. WHYTE-MELVILLE, Digby Grand, x. An extremely abrupt conclusion … empties every bumper of blackstrap LIKE A SHOT.
1886–96. MARSHALL, ‘Pomes’ [1897], 27. So Zippy went in for A LONG SHOT.
1893. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 21, ‘On Woman’s Rights.’ Put us all square LIKE A SHOT.
1897. B. MITFORD, A Romance of the Cape Frontier, I. i. Back I went LIKE A SHOT.
