Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a woman’s undergarment, essentially synon. with a petticoat.

1831		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 24: And what’s the reward for the best lady runner? / A spick and span shimmy blown out by the wind.
1837		Marryat Snarleyyow III (Calcutta edn) 206: We have nothing but petticoats here and shimmeys.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1858		in N.E. Eliason Tarheel Talk (1956) 293: [...] these wee man [i.e. a woman] neds cloth for shimmeys.
1867		Proc. Old Bailey 28 Jan. 430: At the [police] station she said, ‘I have got a shimmy on me, and a flannel petticoat marked Ellen'’.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 109: Nor can much be said in apology of the shamefaced prudery which dares not say chemise, and tries to conceal it under the disguise of a shimmey.
1876		Proc. Old Bailey 18 Sept. 552: I went into the passage and saw a woman lying at the bottom of the stairs in her shimmy.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) II 305: He cuddled me [...] them he pulled up my shimmy. [Ibid.] III 473: I got home and found my shemmy bloody.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 17 Feb. 3/3: [used of a judge’s robes] Is our Justice more true / ’Cos it puts on a gown and a ‘shimmy’?
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 208: Shimmy. A corruption of chemise = smock, shift.
1904		Kipling ‘The Bonds of Discipline’ in Traffics and Discoveries 59: I don’t know what exact nature of sail you’d call ’em—pyjama-stuns’ls with a touch of Sarah’s shimmy, per’aps.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 4: [I] passed away in er little white shimmy.
1910		B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 448: shimmy, n. A woman’s undergarment; a chemise.
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 589: shimmy, n. Chemise.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 199: Why, you’re always touting these Greek dancers [...] that don’t even wear a shimmy!
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 181: Virgin an Saints it’d be noice to have a bed an a pretty lace shimmy.
1934		Blanche Calloway ‘Catch On’ 🎵 I can shake my shimmy and do the rhumba, / But I can’t hit the number!
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 27: I must put a shimmy on her, not to let her be a shame before me.
1941		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 118: Then up before the fire, her pretty feet to warm / With nothing but her shimmy on to hide her graceful form.
1947–53		W. Guthrie Seeds of Man (1995) 397: It’s a-gon’tuh make mah sweet soul drapple down wuth big honey tuh see yuh lay heah ’n shake thuh shimmies an’ mess in yo’ sissy pants.
1952		J. Cleary Sundowners 197: A woman might just as well be without what she’s got under her shimmy.
1971		L. Sanders Pleasures of Helen 148: ‘A chemmy?’ ‘A chemise. That’s what women wore in those days. It’s like a bra and slip and panties all in one’.
1977		J. Olsen Secret of Fire Five 49: She waddles into the bedroom and comes back wrapped [...] in an oversized shimmy-sham.
1982		(ref. to mid-19C) N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 27: Pioneer women [...] ‘flushed’ at last in ‘shimmies’ and ‘pettis’ and bodices and long dresses with a clean ‘pinny’ over all.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 36: ‘Boddies’ or bodices, ‘chimmies’, ‘pettis’ [...] are only worn by females.

2. a man’s shirt.

1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ in Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 38: I passed the Gunthorpe runner whose shimmy was already black with sweat.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 139: ‘All right, get that shimmy off,’ I told him.