Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) posing as a scantily-dressed beggar in cold weather.

1850		Roscommon Messenger 23 Feb. n.p.: I’ve done the shivering dodge too – gone out in cold weather half naked.
1852		Kendal Mercury 24 Jan. 6/1: Among the various ‘dodges‘ which have been practised with great success in this part of the country are ‘the escaped slave dodge,’ ‘the modest dodge,’ ‘[the] journeyman tradesman’s dodge,’ ‘the dry land sailor’s or mud-lark’s dodge,’ ‘the shivering dodge,’ [etc.].
1852		Kendal Mercury 14 Feb. 3/4: The ‘shivering dodge’ when acted to perfection requires a being utterly void of of the feelings of responsibility.
1863		W.B. Jerrold Signals of Distress 46: The shivering dodge is not extinct. Maimed sailors flourish. The blind are as quick-sighted as ever. The halt have nimble feet when it is necessary to run.
1894		Church Eclectic 21 411: The ‘poor old man’ is too often harried by officers of the Mendicity Society [...] who declare that the trembling of his limbs is only an artful variation of what is known as the ‘shivering dodge,’ and who hale him up to the police courts as a fraudulent impostor.