Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. Jewish; also as a nickname for someone Jewish or having a Jewish appearance.

1824		Observer (London) 29 Nov. 4/2: Dick [...] repeated [...] his determination to give his Sheeney anatagonist [i.e. Jewish boxer Barney Aaron] a full dose of pepper.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 110: His face had a kind of sheeneyish expression.
1849		Paul Pry 12 Mar. 1/3: [H]aving to bear the annoyance of being locked up all night [...] and getting his sheeney solicitor, and sheeney pals in general, to do the very ‘extreme humble’ to get him off.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 25/1: Don’t you know how ‘sweet’ that little ‘sheeney moll’ has been on me ever since we came here.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 30 Nov. 6/1: [headline] Bloody Affair Between Two ‘Sheeny’ Segar Merchants.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 1 Apr. 2/3: Now where are the people who were so fresh with their relief funds for sheeny Russian immigrants .
1891		W. De Vere ‘A Black Hills Sermon’ Tramp Poems 24: He bought him the best sheeney suit of new clothes.
1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 199: A red-hot sheeny usurer.
1899		Western Mail (Wales) 28 Mar. 6/7: ‘The Dandy Sheeny Coon’ [...] is his latest success.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 Jan. 1/1: The anxiety of the Sheeny scalper to greet clients would make a stone image smile.
1905		Sporting Times 6 May 1/5: Conscienceless Sheeny solicitor setting every cogwheel in the law-machine in motion.
1906		C. M’Govern Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds 9: A dhirty, pot-bellied, Sheeney Jew.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 48: I ain’t one of those Sheeny employment bureaus; I’m an American.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 10 Jan. 10/5: He seeks out a sheeny Jew.
1919		Princeton Union (MN) 17 Apr. 7/3: The sheeny junkman [...] was seen whiping his horses.
1927		D. Hammett ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 277: Sheeny Holmes [...] and Denny Burke, Baltimore’s King of Frog Island.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 104: Kenny sang Soloman Levi with all the sheeny motions.
1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 246: Dat’s a sheeney block [...] Yer a Jew aintchiz?
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 183: Pritikin, him that run the sheeny delicatessen behind the viaduct.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 149: None of yer sheenie business.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 180: His dossier contains three pages of monikers indicating his proclivity for cooperating with the law [...] Wrongo Sal, The Wailing Spic, The Sheeny Soprano.
1963		(con. 1920s) D. Tracy Brass Ring 7: The public schools were already being overrun with sheeny, wop, polack, Litt, Uke and Slovak kids [HDAS].
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 30: That smartass sheeny bastard.
1997		Mad mag. Apr. 7: Some sheeny meanie has stolen my Barbie.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 384: The Oscars. [...] The Sheeny Shangri-la, the Mockie Matterhorn, the Kike Kilimanjaro. More Jews than the Old Testament.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 625: The Jew sits on the sidelines, in a grandstand seat, watching, relishing, stroking his sheeny beard.

2. of money or other objects, counterfeit [reinforced by SE sheeny, shiny].

1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 13 May 2/1: How Stewart must make the brimstone fly [...] when his shade thinks how Hilton sacrificed his ‘sheeny’ goods.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 1046/2: ‘late C.19–20‘.

3. of people, deceitful, dubious, fraudulent.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 1046/2: ‘late C.19–20‘.