Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a shrewd person, one who lives on their wits.

1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 2 Mar. 4/1: No meeting passes but that the ‘shrewdies’ of the game can un hesitatingly state, ‘Greasy Chops is dealing with Sing Sing; it’s dead’.
1910		Truth (Perth) 23 July 12/8: Buck swells are them there agents, / Downey shrewdies every one.
1918		Aussie (France) VIII Oct. 14/1: ‘Yes,’ remarked our wagon line Shrewdie, ‘whether a man sinks or swims at his soldiering game depends upon the extent of his possession of the three G’s – Go, Guts and Gumption.’.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 257: Shrewdy, A: A trickster. A cunning fellow.
1944		A. Marshall These Are My People (1957) 155: He nudged Sam. ‘A shrewdie, this bloke, eh! You can tell by his dial.’.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 210: The sweepers were ‘shrewdies’, priding themselves on being one jump ahead.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 97: There was a telephone at the front of the rank and sometimes a shrewdie on the rear of the queue would ring up and send the front cab off on a wild goose chase.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 54: They were all shrewdies, trying to get their foot in the movie door.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 152: Don’t want no NAACP or ACLU shrewdies pulling the stilts out from under my case because we missed something.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Christmas Crackers’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Us two shrewdies’ll be outside on the pavement somewhere congratulating each other!
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 102/2: shrewdie a shrewd person.
1997		Guardian 17 Oct. 24/2: Shares in Jarvis dropped like a stone, allowing ‘educated’ shrewdies the chance to [...] buy as much cheap stock as they could.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].