shove, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shove n.

1. sexual intercourse; thus give her a shove, to have sexual intercourse with a woman [shove v. (1)].

1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II:2 21: If Holy Sister, wanting Grace, / By Chance supplies a Harlot’s Place, / And take as a kind refreshing Sh— / Upon the Bed of lawless Love.
c.1778		song in Carey Sailor’s Songbag (1976) 24: And because she denied him a shove on the grass / It's good as his word he got flames to her A—e.
c.1800		‘The Frolicsome Spark’ No. 31 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: Through streets, lanes, and alleys, I’ll rove, in search of a girl for a shove.
1835		‘The Thing That’s In His Breeches’ in Fanny Hill’s New Friskey Chanterr in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 341: I’d leap o’er stiles and ditches, / To gain a little shove / From the Thing that’s in his breeches.
1837		in Ri-tum Ti-tum Songster 22: [song title] There’s No Shove Like the First Shove.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 106: He had his shove, as he called it.
a.1900		‘Red Light Saloon’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 76: I pulled out my hobo, and I gave her a shove, / Such glorious feelings from the Power above.
1951		R. Leveridge Walk on the Water 88: If you meet a good-looking nurse, give a little shove for old Calini, will you?
1965		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 285: I’m in heaven when I’m in your underwear. / I don’t need a shove; I got a taste of love / From your pretty pubic hair.
a.1969		‘Cousin Harry’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 225: As she pushed up to me, I reached home with a shove.

2. (UK Und.) a crowd [play on push n. (2a)].

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

3. energy, high spirits, self-glorification, hollow talk [play on push n. (2a)].

1887

Referee 24 July in Ware (1909) 222/2: You only get to know what a nice place England is by going abroad, and finding what a lot of ‘shove’ there is about the glorification of most other places.

4. (US tramp) a gang of tramps [play on push n. (2c)].

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 397: SHOVE: a gang.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 304: Push—a gang; synonymous with ‘shove’.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 169: Shove. – A gang of tramps or criminals. Probably another way of saying ‘push.’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

In phrases

shove in the eye (n.) (also shove of the eye)

a punch in the face.

1860		London Dly News 18 May 6/6: If you do that again, I’ll give you a shove of the eye.
1863		St. James’s Mag. 7 339: A rough-faced, unshaven individual demands to know ‘where the infernal regions I’m a-shovin’ to,’ and informs me that if I do that again, ‘he'll give me a shove in the eye’.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 37: Mind your own bloomin’ business, or I’ll give yer a shove in the eye.
1906		S.F. Call 28 Oct. 13/2: A school-fellow [...] had given him ‘a shove in the eye’.
1925		J. Steinbeck in Sat. Eve. Post 198 24/1: [...] giving an old friend a shove in the eye and telling him whenever he cared to fetch it he could have a shove in the other eye .

shove in the mouth (n.) (also shove at the mouth)

a glass of spirits.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Shove in the Mouth. A dram.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 265: I vished to be a little nutty upon Dirty Suke [...] so I gov’d her a ‘shove in the mouth’.
1833		‘A Shove In The Mouth’ in Regular Thing, And No Mistake 62: I slabb’d not for a week, nor a cooler e’en grabb’d / Or a shove at the mouth or wet eye.
1838		R.S. Surtees Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 187: ‘Chasse-café, Monsieur,’ said the garcon. ‘Chasse calf--chasse calf--what's that? Oh, I twig--what we call “shove in the mouth” at the Free-and-Easy’.
1843		Noctes Ambrosianae 8: I saw him not a week ago taking a shove in the mouth at old Mother Murly's in St. Martin's Lane.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		‘Felix Folio’ Hawkers & Street Dealers of N. of Eng. 57: ‘A shove in the mouth’ means, in the language of these men, a glass of spirits.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1877		Era (London) 16 Sept. 5/2: I’d shove him in the Liffey instead of giving him a ‘shove in the mouth’.
1890		Sporting Times 1 Feb. 2/1: [He] made a feeble objection that I was notoriously the most unlucky devil breathing; but he was quickly given a shove in the mouth (out of a pewter tankard), and came out of it quite convinced that I should return a millionaire.