shypoo, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shypoo n.

also shypoo grog

1. (Aus./N.Z.) second-rate liquor; beer.

1881		Victorian Exp. (Geraldton, Vic) 14 Dec. 3/3: Which would be sure to hincrease the number of poor fellers dragged hup for gettin’ a little to much shypoo, or runnin’ away from their gaffers, or doin’ somethink else cruckct.
1887		Inquirer & Commercial News (Perth) 17 Aug. 2/8: Mugs of colonial beer [...] / Shypoo and lemonade.
1898		W. Aus. Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Apr. 6/4: Government employees must look after their bread and butter [...] publicans must sell their shypoo.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 143: SHYPOO: W.A. slang for colonial beer.
1902		J. Crawford ‘ Stranger at the U.’ in Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 30: We drank the shypoo deeply, till the lateness of the night / Suggested a retirement.
1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 July 1/2: The unholy seller of illicit shypoo [...] was methodically serving out the strongest and fieriest of shypoo.
1908		E.G. Murphy ‘Pints That I’ve Refused’ in Jarrahland Jingles 78: At ‘free-house’ yarns I jib Which tell me how the gay shypoo Was ladled out ad lib.
1918		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Feb. 18/8: All then that remained would be to sell the shypoo.
1924		E.G. Murphy ‘Bricks of Beer’ Dryblower’s Verses 93: Hennessey laughed as he laid them / A pillar of solid shypoo.
1927		Sun. Times (Perth) 28 Aug. 6/7: As a full pint washed into his gullet [...] he sank again into the sea of shypoo.
1940		North. Standard (Darwin, NT) 3 May 6/2: As long as he kept off the shypoo he was cock of the roost.
1962		Marshall & Drysdale Journey among Men 160: Men [...] met there to buy provisions and to ‘blue’ their cheques on fiery spirits or shypoo, as colonial beer was called.
1972		B. Wannan Folklore of the Aus. Pub 129: Shypoo: a Western Australian term for beer.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 102/2: shypoo inferior booze [...] from Cantonese ‘sai po’, little shop.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 133: The problems associated with over-proof and downright dangerous concoctions are also numerous in colloquial speech: [...] shypoo grog; stagger-juice; snake-juice; plonk; red ned; bombo; chateau cardboard (all terms for poor quality wine).
2000		(con. 1855) Age (Melbourne) 25 Apr. 52/2: The Colonial ale enjoyed such derogatory nicknames as ‘sheep wash,’ ‘tangle-foot’ [...] ‘stringybark’ and ‘shypoo’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1908

Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Nov. 1/1: [He] was unfortunatelty afflicted with a shy-poo breath.

In derivatives

shypooery (n.)

(Aus.) a place that sells beer or cheap liquor.

1902		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 2 Feb. 1/1: A raid should be made on some of the allegedly high-class hotels in this district [...] The fearsome fusel ladled out in many of these swagger shypooeries is little else than liquid lyddite.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Dec. 1/1: The Johns’ solemn warning of their intention to raid the Kurrawang shypoories broke up this thirsty land.
1909		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 Dec. 1s/1: The Racecourse shypooery will be the scene of scarlet stoush.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Apr. 2nd sect. 9/1: They Say [...] That a North of Perth pub retains its name for taking down tugs. That the same shypooery is the; haunt of resting barmaids.

shypooist (n.)

a barmaid.

1901

W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 15 Dec. 1/1: The she-male shypooist carries her entire bathing ‘outfit’ in her purse.

In compounds

shypoo joint (n.) (also shypoo bar, ...hotel, ...ranch, ...shanty, ...shop)

(Aus./N.Z.) a place that sells such liquor.

1894		Kadina and Wallaroo Times SA) 5 May 2/5: Cue is a rising town consisting of several stores, smith's shop, and hotels [...] and one ‘shypoo’ shop. Shypoo here means colonial beer made from sugar or hops and is simply the same kind of article that is called swankey on Yorke's Peninsula.
1898		West Australian (Perth) 8 Apr. 7/4: It was all very well to speak of the alluvial miner, who was backed up by the publican and the ‘shypoo shop’ keepers and little storekeepers, who [...] considered only the present.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 143: In Perth there are hotels / beer-houses / which are known as Shypoo Joints.
1903		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 July 1/2: [headline] A Shypoo Shop. Sly-Grog and Cold Tea.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 May 7/1: I am incapable of playing the class of music that is required for a ‘shy-poo shop’.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Sept. 4/7: As tough a proposition as tickling a drink out of hard-faced Kangaroo Kate at the shypoo ranch.
1912		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Apr. 8/8: [The] beer-sparrer who picked up the wrong pint by mistake in the Shypoo Hotel.
1936		Western Mail (Perth) 24 Sept. 11/2: We went into Charlie Speed’s shypoo joint.
1943		North. Times (Carnarvon, WA) 24 Sept. 2/6: Shypoo: A sly-grog shop.
1961		T. Ronan Only a Short Walk 32: Those blokes in the shypoo bar the other night just got my goat.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 102/2: shypoo inferior booze, as once sold in a sly grog shop known as a ‘shypoo shanty’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].