Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. shabby, useless.

1833		‘Bill Bounce’ in Convivialist in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 26: In London town there once did dwell, / A broken, kneed-y thread-bare swell / [...] / The shickery gent of Rotten Row.
1836		Champion (Southport, Lancs.) 6 Nov. 23/4: Blackwood has put up a large beam [...] against the shickery walls of the House of Peers.
1840		N. Wales Chron. 17 Mar. 1/6: If lords coats are like that, I’m blowed if I vant any. If any nobleman wore such a shickery seed consanr as that, he must be a wery poor ’un.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 4 June n.p.: I see that your boots are ventilated. / And that you sport a shickery tile.
1851		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 16 Feb. 4/2: He’s doin well, and you’d skarce know im agen az ther grate big shikkory devil you saw at Donkaster.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 1 Sept. 7/4: My clothes were becoming very ‘shickery’, and my boots falling to pieces.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 380: A grave here and there with four panels of shickery two-rail fence round it.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 72: Shickery, shabby, bad, etc.

2. bad, fake.

1855		Yokel’s Preceptor 31: Shickery, Shicker, Queerums, Any thing or person that is bad or doubtful: no good.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.