shuck, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shuck n.

[SE shuck, a husk; thus fig. nonsense, deception]

1. (US, esp. black) a hoax, a lie, a deceit.

1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd series (1880) 71: Sech mean shucks ez creditors are all on Lincoln’s side.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 218: The sharks was droppin’ shucks like the Yellow Kid.
1958		G. Lea Somewhere There’s Music 47: Gene must have really laid down some shuck to Barton about your playing.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 107: I’ve used up every shuck there is.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 23: Mesc made you realize that linear thinking was a total shuck.
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 189: Martin looked at Goldberg [...] with the look that says ‘This is a shuck’.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 110: Then Buster showed his ‘this-is-just-a-shuck’ gleaming white grin.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 59: Wayne argued. Wayne almost said it: My plan is a shuck.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 6: The glasses were a shuck. I knew about confidence schemes.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 84: [E]xposing his redemption shuck for what it was, cover for selling prison labor to enrich the Calvineau and LeFer families.

2. an easy job.

1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 82: Couldn’t you get us on the show as stagehands, or some other lightweight shuck.
1977		N.C. Heard When Shadows Fall 11: Wise-ass college chicks who disdained makeup, wore sloppy, thrift-shop nineteen-forties dresses, and called men ‘cats,’ ‘dudes,’ ‘studs’ and ‘suckers.’ A job was a ‘gig,’ ‘hame,’ or a shuck’ .

shuck drop (v.) [drop v.² (3)]

(US black) to take advantage of a victim or fool.

1944

D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 18: There’s a lot of shuck dropping going on.

shuckman (n.)

a swindler.

1965

B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 85: That’s the worst old place in ragtown for a shuckman or gun.

cut a shuck (v.)

(US) to leave.

1971

T. Thackrey Thief 352: I cut a shuck for Long Beach in my sister’s car.

put the shuck on (v.) (also drop the shuck on)

(US) to trick, to deceive, to fool verbally.

1931		Hammett Glass Key 470: ‘So honest Paul Madvig’s letting you drop the shuck on me, huh?‘ Ned Beaumont smiled. ‘You’re not being framed, Bernie, and you know it’.
1966		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 3 July 60/1: [headline] Geezinslaws ‘Put the Shuck’ on us .
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 66: You wouldn’t be trying to put the shuck on, would you?
1977		Lansing State Jrnl (MI) 5 Sept. 9/2: ‘Kirk, you wouldn’t put the shuck on me would you?’.
1988		Noblesville Ledger (IN) 29 Aug. 4/6: ‘You’ve lied to us, Danny boy. Or at least you’ve tried to put the shuck on us’.