Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also scurrick, skerek, skirrach, skirrick) a halfpenny.

1821–5		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) x: The prize-agents of those days [...] were just the boys that remembered to forget they were due you a skirrach.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Scurrick, a half-penny.
1826		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 12 Mar. 470/2: Then you have not found any money today.? No—none at all—not a skerrik! (a phrase of ‘the Fancy’—signifying the smallest possible coin).
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 18 Nov. 1/5: I was regularly hard up in a clinch; not a skirrick in my pocket.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 14 Apr. 3/5: He’d find a lot of broken glass at his back door, and not a skerrick in his pants or purse.
1986		G.A. Wilkes Exploring Aus. Eng. 15: Other Australianisms derived from English dialect include damper [...] skerrick, wowser and stoush.

2. a small amount, a small fragment, the slightest bit.

1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 127: Devil a skirrach’s worth of bother it shall cost him.
1838		‘Paul Pry’ Oddities of London Life I 152: MR. CHAMBERS—Come now, my good woman, tell us as shortly as you can what you know about this assault. MOTHER—Fait an' I will, every skurrick.
1854		S. Sidney Gallops and Gossips 88: I have plenty of tobacco, but not a skerrick of tea or sugar.
1904		L.M. Palmer-Archer Bush Honeymoon 327: There was hardly a skerrick of grass.
1915		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Nov. 51/2: They were both done, an’ there wasn’t a skerrick o’ grass on the main reserve.
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 95: But not a word or a skerrick would he say.
1941		N.Y. Herald Trib. 29 June 9/2: If the food is all gone, or there’s not a drop in the bottle, the Australian will tell you there’s ‘not a skerek left’.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 94: It won’t be me that can’t find a skerrick of meat for him once a day.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 20: Not even a bloody skerrick of wood about.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 26: Half the week gone already, and not a skerrick o’ work to show for it yet!
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 73: There wasn’t a grain of rice, a skerrick of meat or a drop of soy sauce left .
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 103/2: skerrick small amount of money, in phr. not a skerrick.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 4: ALP politician Gareth Evans [...] peppers his responses to media questions with lingoisms like skerrick.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2014		Sydney Morn. Herald 10 Oct. 🌐 He hasn’t missed a trick; he’s digested every skerrick of wisdom or experience you – and life – have put his way.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 233: Regrettably, skerricks of acquiescecne remain.
2020		G. Disher Consolation 304: A simple goodbye and thank you. Maybe even a skerrick of respect.