Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also shitkicker boot) a shoe or boot, esp. one used for everyday wear or work.

1966–9		in DARE.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 55: He was an open apple knocker from the West Side wearing plain Monkey Ward jeans rather than Levi’s and high-top horsehide shit kickers.
1979		D. Gram Foxes (1980) 134: They were all into the derelict scene [...] filthy flak jackets, shit-kicker boots.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 163: You wear five-hundred-dollar ostrich, I wear thirty-dollar shit kickers.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 139: At least you could take those damned shitkickers off.
1984		(con. WW2) T. Jones Heart of Oak [ebook] There I was to learn [...] doctor’s chum, and keep my bobstay and shit-kickers clean [etc.].
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 38: A new pair of shit-kicker boots and a pair of jeans.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 49: Steel-toe shitkicker boots.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 4: He wore three-inch snakeskin shitkickers.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 55: Those are some sporty shitkickers you got on, man.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 shit kickers n. Boots. Usually referring to Doc Martin’s with steel toe-caps, but equally appropriate to any really tough boot as worn by genuine hard-cases, or wannabe ones. So named because, they, propelled by the wearer’s foot, proceed to kick the shit out of anyone foolish enough to stand in their way.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 25: In his leather military shit-kickers he stood a few inches over six feet tall.

2. (Aus.) one who performs menial tasks; an unskilled labourer.

1950		‘No. 35’ Argot in G. Simes DAUS (1993) 182/1: sh – t-kicker A ‘short-timer’ (often employed on sanitary work).
1963		C. Rohan Down By The Dockside 176: Bluey Gleeson said [...] that Clarrie would never be anything except a small-time shit kicker if he lived to be a hundred.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 122: Christ! They’re only shit-kickers like us. It’s the big bugs I’m talkin’ about, Churchill an’ them.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 13: ‘I’m a shitkicker meself, what do youse do for an earn?’ ‘We are students of literature,’ the Charlie volunteered.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 153: A shitkicker (redolent of the Australian ethos, though not exclusively ours) is someone who performs the most menial occupational tasks.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘He worked his way up from being a shitkicker at the illegal casinos’.
2009		T. Black Gutted 11: Boss Suit was leaving it to the shitkickers.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] It’s a difficult position to be in when you’re so close to your dream in one field and then someone’s shit-kicker in another.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 10: Devon Smith and Marcus were the same rank of Kitchen Patrol shitkicker.

3. (US, also kicker) a farmer or other country person.

1961		(con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 121: ‘You like shitkicking music, ne?’ ‘Hellyea, I like shitkicking. I like Hank Williams [...] he was an American shitkicker.’.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 11: If somebody played a lefty Frazell record or some other shitkicker they moaned.
1977		(con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 73: There was a black Marine [...] who’d been a gang lord in Philadelphia and who was looking forward to some street fighting [...] he could show the kickers what he could do with some city ground.
1977		J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 287: How did the shitkicker know that?
1989		B. Bryson Lost Continent 52: [T]hey are backward, undereducated shitkickers who don’t know any better.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 109: Bunch a dumb cowboy shitkickers.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 227: She wondered about the redneck quotient. Alaska was almost as famous for its shitkickers as for its wildlife.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 32: Shitkicker from Dripping Springs dressed up on a date.
2006		F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 70: Chicky had to fight the German shit-kicker face-to-face.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 58: This shit-kicker from Memphis, Tennessee.
2011		T. Pluck ‘Van Candy’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 288: [W]e drop the shitkicker’s bike and run like pit bulls with tasers up their ass.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 189: A nigger, a shitkicker and a slut.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 65: His parents, poor shit kickers from Calabria who came to Melbourne in the early 1960s.

4. (US) a Western film.

1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

5. (US) a depressive.

1968

T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 102: A shit kicker is a guy with a frown on and his eyes on the ground, sloughing forward with his toes scuffing the pavement like he’s kicking horseshit out of the way saying oh that this should happen to me.

6. (US) a street prostitute.

1967

in S. Harris Hellhole 98: Every shitkicker in New York knows how the cops are.

7. (US, also crap-kicker, shitkick) a fool, a person of meagre intelligence.

1967		(con. 1950s) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 300: I’m going for a swim, shit-kicker.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 79: Anybody tawks that way’s a shitkickuh, Daddy.
1970		B. Oakley Salute to the Great McCarthy 169: Suburban shitkicker! Clerk!
1971		T. Thackrey Thief 299: Don’t you know those Kansas City crap-kickers have stuck me with a car that’s got a dead battery?
1977		(con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 189: There were some Marines stretched out [...] calling each other Dude and Jive, Lifer and Shitkick and Motherfucker.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Shit kicker. A junior prison officer or generally a low status person.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 114: The shitkickers returned night after night with a hot credit card.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 246: Sometimes I wish I was one of the shit-kickers downstairs in the bar, living the simple life.

8. something exceptional and powerful, i.e. that ‘kicks shit’.

1963		Dundes & Schonhorn ‘Kansas University Sl.: A New Generation’ in AS XXXVIII:3 171: A few of the more colourful expressions [for party] appearing once are: ball, bash, beer blast, blowout, boozer, bust, heller, rocker, shit kicker, shit stomper, smash, and swinger.
1979		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 38: My last three field operations were real shitkickers.
1985		(con. 1968) D.A. Dye Citadel (1989) 58: If we go back to the rear, they’ll just find some other shit-kicker for us to go out on.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 112: A magnificent shitkicker of a hurricane.

9. (US drugs) a stimulant.

1978

W. Diehl Sharky’s Machine 230: ‘They’d be highly addictive.’ [...] ‘Just a shit kicker, right? No medicinal value?’.

10. (US) a thug.

1984		J. Ellroy Because the Night 133: ‘And, buddy? Keep your roll to yourself. They got some righteous shitkickers down there’.
1987		C. Hiaasen Double Whammy (1990) 230: There’s a guy named Thomas Curl, a real shitkicker. He [...] killed your friend.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 171: A whole new breed of fearsome shit-kickers, known locally as ‘Puerto-billies.’.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: If anyone sees me getting paraded through the Boneyard by this pair of shit-kickers it’ll look like I’m for a doing.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 179: [T]here was always the possibility that some shitkicker would show up at your favorite bar looking to double tap your ass.