shove v.
1. to have sexual intercourse (with); thus shoving, shoving-match n., sexual intercourse.
![]() | Wandring Whore III 6: Drinking Sack very merrily and feeling the whores whibb-bobs one after the other, till they drove a bargain to play at heave-and-shove. | |
![]() | King Edward & Jane Shore Pills to Purge Melancholy (1707) III 23: Naples Joan would make them Groan that ardently did love her, But Jane Shore, Jane Shore, King Edward he did Shove her. | |
![]() | Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk IV 234: When lusty John does to me come, He never shoves but with his bum. | (trans.)|
![]() | Miscellaneous Works IV 69: Their Jilting and Loving With Heaving and Shoving, Maintains the whole Family round. | ‘Lampoon Upon Two Sisters’|
![]() | ‘The Town Mistress’ in Town Mistress vi: So ends with Mistress of the Town, Alas! / Who shoves for Half a Crowrn. | |
![]() | Bacchanalian Mag. 66: She he sh—d, and Nance sh—d, / And Poll sho—d, and I sho—d, / And all of us sh—d; / And swore there was nothi. | |
![]() | Merry Muses of Caledonia (1827) 80: Sarah, I will shuve thee; I’ll not only shuve thee, but I’ll ram-shuve thee; I’ll shuve thee as the ram shuveth the ewe. | ‘Courtships’|
![]() | ‘We Have Moved & Shoved Together’ Cuckold’s Nest 39: We have moved and shoved together, / These four and twenty years. | |
![]() | ‘Lord Bateman’s Long Jock’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 21: In Turkey he was shov’d in quod, / Because, as how, that he was found / In dead of night, in the Harem, / Shoving all the ladies round. | |
![]() | Bagnio Misc. 8: Sophy has a tall, stout Hercules, called Longcock [...] and Amelia Shoveitin fancies a black-haired, rosy-cheeked Adonis called [...] Spunky Tom. | |
![]() | Register (Adelaide) 25 Nov. 6/7: ‘Come on, off yer perch!’ ‘It’s my sister,’ ‘Oh, yer sister! Shove ’er in!’. | |
![]() | ‘Joe Williams’ Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 185: On Fifth Avenue Avenue I met a pretty lass, / I introduced her to my click, and I shoved it up her ass. | |
![]() | in Limerick (1953) 9: As it went in I made not a sound, / The more that he shoved it / The more that I loved it. | |
![]() | in Erotic Muse (1992) 38: He shoved it in until she died, / And then he tried the other side. | |
![]() | (con. 1940s–60s) Snatches and Lays 13: There are numerous parsons, quite willing to call, / And shove for the man who has no balls at all! | ‘No Balls at All’ in|
![]() | Black Tide (2012) [ebook] He’s shovin this supermarket bitch, must be about sixteen. |
2. (UK Und.) to deceive, to cheat; to take advantage of.
![]() | Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 106/2: I stood this a turn or two, until I felt convinced I was being ‘shoved;’ then [...] I left every one of ’em, and ‘grafted’ for my own ‘jills’. |
3. in Und. use.
(a) (US) to pass counterfeit money or financial papers.
![]() | N.-Y. American 9 Dec. 2/3: Oh! says he, I’ll keep this money; you’ll find no difficulty in putting ours off; I’ve just shoved off two of them; they’ll go anywhere. | |
![]() | Vocabulum 79: shoving Passing bad money. | |
![]() | Memoirs of the US Secret Service 97: He shoved over $10,000 in bogus bank bills. | |
![]() | Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 July 7/3: Becker came to grief in Italy for forging American letters of credit and ‘shoving’ them on the continent. | |
![]() | Aus. Sl. Dict. 73: Shove, pass money . | |
![]() | Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. | |
![]() | Men of the Und. 325: Shove, To pass counterfeit money or worthless checks. | |
![]() | Hoodlums (2021) 111: Jeannie shoving the bill, was good for an angle when the chips were down. |
(b) (US) to sell stolen goods.
![]() | White Moll 226: He probably ‘shoved’ more stolen goods for his clientele [...] than any other ‘fence’ in New York. |
(c) (US drugs) to sell narcotics.
![]() | Opium Addiction in Chicago 203: Shover. A drug pedlar; as in ‘So-and-so is shoving’. | |
![]() | Lang. Und. (1981). | ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in|
![]() | Narcotics Lingo and Lore. |
4. to put, to place.
![]() | Wilds of London (1881) 94: She shoved me right bang into a dish of fried Dutch plaice. | |
![]() | Sporting Times 1 Feb. 2/1: Everything that I didn’t want was shoved into the portmanteau, and all that I desired to have with me was rigidly kept at home. | |
![]() | Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 57: Are we ’cordions? I don’t b’lieve we’re as much as that . . . no, s’elp me. We’re on’y the footlin’ little keys; shoved about to soot the toon. | |
![]() | Fables in Sl. (1902) 150: The caddy wondered why it was that his father, a really Great Man, had to shove Lumber all day. | |
![]() | Such is Life 143: I shoved the kettle on when I seen you comin’. | |
![]() | Carry on, Jeeves 69: Jeeves is so dashed competent. You can spot it even in the way he shoves studs into a shirt. | |
![]() | Gangster Girl 196: They had shoved her face to face with old Pete. | |
![]() | Big Smoke 146: You come up with a watch, a decent job, bloody all gold, heavy as a handful of brass knackers. You shove it in your kick. | |
![]() | Panic in Needle Park (1971) 39: ‘Shove it over there, man, you can’t have the whole damn park, you know,’ Helen said to three young girls on one of the benches. | |
![]() | Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 54: In either case I can shove it in the loo. | East in|
![]() | Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 12: Here’s a fiver / shove it in your pocket. | |
![]() | (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 11: Bud shoved over and in. | |
![]() | Powder 151: He’d had her, skirt shoved up over her backside. |
5. (US Und., also shove across) to kill.
![]() | Let Tomorrow Come 39: I shoved a guy across, that’s all. | |
![]() | Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 169: Shove Across. – To kill. | |
![]() | Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 208: shove across To kill. | |
![]() | Scene (1996) 213: Who handled the connect after he got shoved? |
6. a negative intensifier, synon. with fuck v. (3), to stop, to forget; usu. in phr. you can shove… or shove it! excl.
![]() | These Are My People (1957) 146: If they [i.e. employers] come that game with me I tell them to shove the job. | |
![]() | Harder They Fall (1971) 172: Shove the kids [...] What does this look like, a relief office? | |
![]() | (con. 1950) Band of Brothers 103: ‘Company commanders is supposed to lead, right? The Book says – ’ ‘Aw, shove the Book!’. | |
![]() | Gun in My Hand 147: Dirty big roast at the weekend. You can shove the bully beef. | |
![]() | Garden of Sand (1981) 57: You can jus shove your fuckin job. | |
![]() | Close Quarters (1987) 154: We [...] told him to shove his fucking drill. | |
![]() | Go-Boy! 123: Mom would yell at [...] the boys to shove their stupid arguments. | |
![]() | Bonfire of the Vanities 419: Tell ’em to take their linenfold panels and shove ’em. | |
![]() | Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 223: He could tell his three bosses [...] they could shove their ad, mango flavoured wine and all. | |
![]() | Spidertown (1994) 11: Miguel wanted to tell him to shove his goddam wienie roast. | |
![]() | (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 198: That’s it. Shove your threats. I refuse to hurt Bobby. | |
![]() | Old Scores [ebook] The premier telling him to shove it, cool and ruthless. | |
![]() | Dly Express 11 Dec. 🌐 [headline] Shove your cake, Mr Macron. And your bloody croissants! |
7. see shove along
8. see shove off
In derivatives
one who copulate; a whore.
![]() | ‘Snuff Out the Moon’ in Cove in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 220: Darkey comes on [...] for each wim wam shover. |
In compounds
the penis.
![]() | Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 44: And some of the other women would give these names [...] my lusty live sausage, my crimson chitterlin, rump-splitter, shove-devil, down right to it, stiff and stout, in and to, at her again, my coney-borrow-ferret, wily-beguiley, my pretty rogue. | (trans.)
the penis.
![]() | Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
![]() | Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 149: Goujon, m. The penis; ‘the shove-straight’. |
In phrases
a phr. used to dismiss an impertinent speaker.
![]() | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Another answer to Impertinent Instruction is Go Shove your mothers sisters devil, i.e. your Aunts ****. |
see sense 5 above.
see under queer n. (2)
SE in slang uses
In phrases
1. to move (quietly).
![]() | Life on the Mississippi (1914) 336: She stopped to get that game-bag before she shoved along again! | |
![]() | King Kong 101: He half swung back [...] but Englehorn’s sharp, ‘Shove along!’ kept him going. |
2. (also shove) to leave.
![]() | (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 208: Shove along, now. | |
![]() | Ulysses 80: Better be shoving along. Brother Buzz. Come around with the plate perhaps. Pay your Easter duty. | |
![]() | (con. 1900s–10s) 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 146: I guess I’ll shove along back to New York. | |
![]() | letter 24 Apr. in Harris (1993) 82: Nothing is working out here and I am ready to shove. | |
![]() | Riot (1967) 133: ‘Let’s shove,’ Fletcher said. | |
![]() | Campus Sl. Nov. 6: shove – leave. |
3. to go along with, to support.
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Sept. 10/3: Needless to say they are rapidly piling up their little dollar-heaps, and if it lasts another six months it will be independence and a seat in Congress for most every Hiram M’Isaacs among them. Even the lowest in rank of them has a No. 10 fist in the pie, so you can bet they will shove along on the war ticket. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Aug. 11/3: People who, under normal circumstances, wouldn’t have touched Orangeism with a 40-rod pole were beginning to join absurdly-named Lodges and to clothe themselves in preposterous regalia in the belief that in some vague way they were thereby shoving along the cause of Empire. |
4. to survive.
![]() | Odd – But Even So 278: ‘How are you?’ ‘Pretty fit, thank you, And you, Sir?’ ‘Oh, shoving along.’. |
(W.I.) a Model T Ford.
![]() | cited in Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980). |
to move towards, to go to.
![]() | (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 336: So Jim he was sorry, and said he wouldn’t behave so no more, and then me and Tom shoved for bed. |
to pawn.
![]() | Oddities of London Life 11: It’ll ‘spout’ for twelve bob [...] and as soon as hever I gets it ‘shoved up’ I’ll stand a prime ‘blow-out’. | |
![]() | ‘O’Reilly’ [US army poem] O’Reilly swiped a blanket, and shoved it up I hear, / He shoved it for a dollar and invested that in beer. | |
![]() | Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. | |
![]() | Juno and the Paycock Act III: Well, ever since I shoved in the blankets I’ve been perishing with th’ cowld. |
to defeat an opponent, to cause a good deal of trouble.
![]() | Houston Post (TX) 17 July 25/5: The ill-used Buffaloes dropped another notch in the percentage column [...] Why will the fates persistently shove it into the Buffaloes and break it off? | |
![]() | in Sweet Daddy 22: Your buddy-boy, Doc, could take it and shove it way up before I’d give half a cent for tail. | |
![]() | Last Exit to Brooklyn 136: He was glad he had shoved it up the boss’s ass and broke it off. | |
![]() | Detroit Free Press (MI) 29 Sept. 3/6: ‘I’ll just take them and shove them up the prosecutor’s ass and break them off’. | |
![]() | Song of the Silent Snow (1988) 75: Ya gotta keepem in their place or theyll shove it in and break it off. |
1. to leave, to go away; usu. as imper; thus shoveoff time n, time to go.
![]() | Cumberland Pacquet 2 Sept. 4/1: Now neither Sue nor black ey’d Nan, / Will give one friendly cheer / [...] / Shove off, no Sally’s here. | |
![]() | Scotsman 18 Sept. 2/3: He crept into the vehicle, bidding the driver ‘shove off,’ with a volley of imprecations. | |
![]() | Adventures of Snodgrass (1928) 31: I shoved out for the Massasawit House [DA]. | |
![]() | Queensland Times 16 Feb. 5/5: O’Gorman then said to Russell ‘Shove off at once,’ and the prisoner immediately lelt. | |
![]() | Innocents at Home 479: I then took what small change he had and ‘shoved’. | |
![]() | Bristol Magpie 20 July 3/1: You’d best shove out for your tram. | |
![]() | ’Sailors’ Lingo’ in Hants. Teleg. 21 Feb. 11/3: If you are not wanted to join in any conversation on board ship, you are told to ‘shove off’. | |
![]() | How to Tell a Story 10: So he git up, he did, en tuck his lantern en shoved out thoo de storm. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Sept. 19/2: A wild–looking Irishman, who was spreeing there and looking for a fight, called Tom a sanguinary perverter of the truth, and started peeling off. Tom, looking at me, said, ‘I don’t want any mullock of this sort. We’ll shove.’. | |
![]() | Psmith in the City (1993) 101: And now [...] as the hour is getting late, perhaps we had better be shoving off for home. | |
![]() | Big Town 135: We was out on the porch when her ladyship and two dogs shoved off. | |
![]() | (con. 1918) Red Pants 87: It’s time to shove off now. | |
![]() | (con. 1900s–10s) 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 128: It’s time we shoved. [Ibid.] 331: I guess I’ll shove off for New York right after Mardi Gras. | |
![]() | Fight Stories Jan. 🌐 Let’s cop the sparkler for ourselves and shove out! | ‘Alleys of Peril’|
![]() | (con. 1920s) Studs Lonigan (1936) 218: Yeah, fellow, shove on while you’re all together! | Young Manhood in|
![]() | Right Ho, Jeeves 160: And now, Bertie, like a good chap, shove off. | |
![]() | Mules and Men (1995) 150: I felt no regrets at shoving off. | |
![]() | Mad in Pursuit 10: Come on, Wilks, we’ve got to shove off. | |
![]() | Jimmy Brockett 207: It’s no good you mugs hanging round here like a couple of dogs after a bitch on heat. I’ve got a lot of work to do. Shove off! | |
![]() | Battle Cry (1964) 52: Come on, professor, let’s shove. | |
![]() | Corner Boy 140: Here’s your keys [...] I’m shoving off now. | |
![]() | (con. 1950) Band of Brothers 14: This [i.e. a pistol] is what I came for. We can shove now. | |
![]() | Proud Highway (1997) 350: I’m going to whip this one off in hopes of catching you before shoveoff time. | letter 28 Aug.|
![]() | Last Exit to Brooklyn 107: He told her to grab her gear and shove off. | |
![]() | Burn 135: ‘Ready to shove off?’ he says cheerfully. | |
![]() | Beano 27 June 19: You don’t scare me, Bears! Shove off! | |
![]() | Life Its Ownself (1985) 39: Shoat [...] said he guessed he’d better shove off. | |
![]() | Share House Blues 90: ‘Let’s get these presents into the car, then shove off’. | |
![]() | Blood Posse 59: Here’s a dollar, Pops, now shove off. | |
![]() | ‘Lucky for Me’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] ‘If that’s best you’ve got [...] shove off’. |
2. UK Und. to give a sentence of transportation.
![]() | York Herald 3 May 4/3: You b—y convicted thief, you tried to get me shoved of to Bottomy. |
to interfere where one is not wanted.
![]() | Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 139: ‘Troth now, Father Gibby,’ cried Dennis, shoving in his oar ‘[...] twenty to one does not know what you mane at all.’. | |
![]() | London Eve. Standard 23 Nov. 1/5: The Ex is at hand, and ready, as ‘a public character,’ to shove in his oar. | |
![]() | ‘Nights At Sea’ in Bentley’s Misc. Nov. 615: To my thinking it’s wery hodd, Muster Jolly, that you should shove your oar in where it arn’t wanted. | |
![]() | Newry Teleg. 9 Sept. 3/4: Professing [...] to revive agitation in Ireland, Mr John O’Connell has been prompt to [...] shove in his oar. | |
![]() | N.Y. Times 24 Feb. 2/5: He does go on, and he ‘sticks his oar in,’ as usual. | |
![]() | Johnny Ludlow III 41: If you shove in your oar, Johnny Ludlow, or presume to interfere with me, I’ll pummel you to powder. | |
![]() | Guthrie Dly Leader (OK) 1 Aug. 4/3: ‘Babe’ McNeal attempted to stick his oar into the procedings. | |
![]() | Inter Ocean (Chicago) 31 July 29/4: Mickey was what I called a tenement house philosopher. He’d stick his oar in every bit of talk. | |
![]() | Huntingdon Herald (IN) 28 Dec. 3/2: Nobody, it seems, cares to stick his oar in [...] and take a chance of getting mixed up in the federal investigation. | |
![]() | Man Who Found Himself (1952) 105: Not a bad chap; respectful, listens to what you say, didn’t shove his oar in every second. | |
![]() | Right Ho, Jeeves 126: He starts shoving his oar in and cavilling and obstructing. | |
![]() | There Ain’t No Justice 180: Who arst you to come sticking your oar in? | |
![]() | Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 66: And she can and will get drunk on Clark Street if you stick our oar in. | |
![]() | Courier-Jrnl (Louisville, KY) 30 July 32/1: [He] ‘begs leave to stick in his oar’ to find fault. | |
![]() | Jeeves in the Offing 43: I could have relied on Bobbie to shove her oar in. | |
![]() | There is a Happy Land (1964) 69: Mrs Fawcett was always shoving her oar in every time we’d been doing anything. | |
![]() | A Pocketful of Years 44: I’se mighty sick of you shoving blade in all the time [...] instead of minding your own damn business. | |
![]() | Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 29 July 6/3: It now seems that Uncle Sam is willing to stick his oar in for any or no reason. | |
![]() | Age (Melbourne) 19 Jan. 14/1: Various scientific disciplines have had a go at explaining this phenomenon [...] Freud was one of the first to stick his oar in. | |
![]() | Hooky Gear 151: They got army engineers donkeyin an Caesar experts figurin an a whole bunch of other geezers stickin their oar in. |
to move.
![]() | Life’s Painter 134: Crap me but I must shove my trunk, and hop the twig — I see as how there’s nothing to be got in this here place. | |
![]() | Mysteries of London III 66/1: So he speeled to the crib, while his jomen shoved her trunk too. |
to sodomize.
![]() | DSUE (8th edn) 1063/1: C.20. |
see under brass n.1
see under tumbler n.2
to abscond from a house or flat, taking one’s furniture and possessions, but paying no bills.
![]() | Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: Shoving the moon, to steal your goods away without paying the rent. | |
![]() | Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
![]() | Leics. Mercury 4 Nov. 2/4: Her landlord [...] Mr. W said that, finding she was about to ‘shove the moon,’ (in more polite language, about to depart without paying the rent,) he laid an embrago on her boxes. | |
![]() | Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. |
(Aus./N.Z.) to kill, usu. in passive, i.e. to be shoved under, to be killed.
![]() | cited in DSUE (1984). | |
![]() | Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 188: shove under To kill; shove underground is simply to bury, whether or not you killed the body first. ANZ late C19. |
see shove in
(orig. US) to reject something vehemently; thus dismissive phr. you know where you can shove it.
![]() | Hollywood Detective July 🌐 ‘I hired you for a job, and—’ ‘And I told you where you could shove it.’. | ‘Dead Don’t Dream’ in|
![]() | (con. 1944) Naked and Dead 81: There’s a kind of pleasure in telling somebody like Conn where to shove it. | |
![]() | Lead With Your Left (1958) 12: ‘I could also write you up and—’ ‘Do that. And you know where you can shove it.’. | |
![]() | Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 21: If the gaffer got on to you now you could always tell him where to put the job. [Ibid.] 32: When it comes to the lousy vote they give me I often feel like telling ’em where to shove it. | |
![]() | Traveller’s Tool 42: Naturally I told him where to stick his diagnosis. | |
![]() | Powder 35: Appreciate the extra work you chaps did for us this evening. Could’ve told us where to stick it. |
In exclamations
a synon. for go fuck yourself! under fuck v.
![]() | Harder They Fall (1971) 208: Aah, go shove yourself, spithead. |