shuck and jive, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shuck and jive v.

[shuck and jive n.; ‘By ‘jiving’ and ‘shucking,’ ghetto concepts with the partial denotation of warding off punishment or retribution through tall stories, feigned innocence, demeaning talk about oneself, or other misleading statements, a man may avoid the undesirable consequences of his own misdemeanors' U. Hannerz Soulside (1969)]

(US, esp. black)

1. (also shive) to act deceptively, to confuse; to dodge.

1964		R. Abrahams Deep Down In The Jungle 45: We can sit here and shuck and shive.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 99: Ah ain’t shuckin’ and jivin’.
1972		‘Soulful Spider’ ‘Pimp in a Clothing Store’ in Milner & Milner (1972) 288: Now I hate to short-stop your whole conversation like this, you know, ain’t bogarting, but your stuff is right here. On our job, we don’t be shuckin’ and jivin’ with no malformies out in the street. We here.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 15: Oh, there’s a few of the minority groups shuckin’ and jivin’ on your stoops and stuff like that.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 8: Shucking and jiving, juking and high-stepping, rolling his eyes and snapping his fingers in time.
1993		(con. 1969) N.L. Russell Suicide Charlie 45: Short-timers DEROSing home [...] shucked and jived us as if we were a bunch of honkeys in Harlem.
1999		Master Pimp Pimp’s Rap 109: We shucked and jived after giving each other five.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 159: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Shuckin n’ jivin. Handle your bidness.
2009		Observer Mag. 4 Jan. 24: They don’t have to be shuckin’ and jivin’ – doing the tap dance – to make a living. And I mean that ‘tap dancing’ figuratively, not literally.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] He hurdled an end table, shuck-and-jived around the television stand, and pushed over a large fern.

2. to make a promise one has no intention of keeping.

1972

O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 211: I’m not goin’ to waste a lot o’ time shuckin’ ’n jivin’.