shanghai n.1
1. (US, also shanghae) a thug, a rowdy; as a woman, a street prostitute.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | N.Y. Clipper 18 Mar. 3/4: [of a prizefighter] The gallant agent forked over the rhino, evidently chagrined at the defeat of his prize shanghi. | |
| N.Y. Trib. 31 May 5/4: The male portion of the company consisted of butcher-boys, wagon-boys [...] shoulder-hitters, a few loafers and [...] shanghais. | |
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 14 Apr. n.p.: What is the long-legged shanghae trying to make out of Ike Tower? | |
| N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 18 Aug. 8/1: Elizabeth Dunn, alias ‘Bull head Lize,’ and Shanghae Molly Kelly [...] are perambulating the precincts of the B‘lack Sea’. |
2. a kidnapper, an abuctor.
| N.Y. Daily Times 24 July 5: The whole voyage is a repetition of abuses, for which they [i.e. men persuaded by ‘shanghais’ to pose as sailors for money] have no one to blame but themselves in the first instance, and next the Shanghai’s. | |
| N.Y. Times 9 Feb. 2: Boston, who was one of the most notorious ‘shanghais,’ or kidnappers of colored men, [...] approached Eddy. | |
| S.F. Chron. 21 Apr. 3/3: He had been foully dealt with by some of the professional shanghaiers and stranglers that infest the dens along the city [water] front. | |
| N.Y. Times 24 Sept. 5/5: [headline] Three Bold ‘Shanghaiers’. They Board a Vessel in the Bay at Night and Induce Five Sailors to Desert. | |
| Texas Cow Boy (1950) 45: Mr. ‘Shanghai’ had the fun of selling them over again, to some other greeny. | |
| Morn. Astorian (OR) 15 Feb. 3/2: Sam Wynn, the notrious sailor boarding-house keeper and shanghaier. | |
| You Can’t Win (2000) 129: I learned to beware the crafty shanghaier with his knockout drops, lying in wait for strong young fellows from the country. |
3. (US) an admirable individual.
| Broadway Belle (NY) 5 Mar. n.p.: ‘The editor is a buck [...] a perfect Shanghai!’. |
Proper name in slang uses
In compounds
(N.Z.) rice (in cit. 1956 sago).
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | informant in DNZE (1998) 714/3: shanghai ballast for rice, also freq. in WW1 . | |
 | Expressions and Sayings 2NZEF (TS N.A. WAIL DA42011) n.p.: Shanghai ballast-Rice [DNZE]. | |
| Tararua Tramper Apr. 7: A vote whether to have Christmas dinner at midnight or a cup of cocoa and a plate of rice in half an hour, brought a hundred percent for Shanghai ballast [DNZE]. | |
| Musterer on Molesworth 52: Rice was our mainstay. ‘Shanghai Ballast’ we called it, and we got dead sick of it. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Green Kiwi 66: Hare and his cobbers had eaten [...] some sago or shanghai-ballast, preserved fruit, bread, butter and jam. |
1. (US) an opium-laced cigar.
| (con. late 19C) Tennessean (Nashville, TN) Magazine 9 Feb. 13/4: Shanghai Kelley [...] was the originator of the Shanghai Smoke; a cigar soaked in opium. | |
| (con. late 19C) Wilder Shore 214: The Chinatown Shanghai Smoke – a cigar made by a Chinese tobacconist that contained a heavy mixture of opium. |
2. (US) nonsense, empty story-telling.
| ‘Our Boarding House’ in Santa Ana Register (CA) 1 Aug. 12: [cartoon script] Whew! Even on a train with strangers , he blows th’ same ol’ Shanghai smoke! |