mush n.3
1. as abbr. mushroom n.
(a) (UK Und., also mush-toper) an umbrella.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Autobiog. 62: In one shop, they nabbed two mush-topers. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Vulgar Tongue. | |
 | London Figaro 15 June n.p.: What pretty faces, mush of mine, I’ve sheltered ’neath thy shade [F&H]. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Dead Bird (Sydney) 3 May 2/1: Said Smiler to the Prodigal last week, ‘Lend us your umbrella, old man.’ [...] Next day Prodigal was met by Smiler [...] with ‘mush’ in full working order. | |
| Sporting Times 21 Feb. 5/3: The unholy glance [...] which that prospective member had cast at the club stick-and-mush rack. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Barkeep Stories 23: ‘On me way out I gets a swell mush’ [...] he brought forth from under the back bar and held aloft for inspection a swell silk umbrella. | |
| Sporting Times 6 Jan. 5/4: When the play is over homeward thro’ the slush, / Drest in humble fashion — p’raps without a mush. | |
| Salt Lake Herald (UT) 19 Oct. 5/1: He’s weeding [the pocketbook] when he sees a grab all across the street leaning on a mush with a steamer in his face. | |
| ‘Criminal Sl.’ in Amer. Law Rev. LII (1918) 891: A ‘mush’ is an umbrella. | |
| ‘Lord Ballyrot in Slangland’ in Tacoma Times (WA) 21 July 4/4: You want to splurge in a yaller slicker and a mush [...] I can fit you out with a douse-proof outfit. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 412: Mush. An umbrella. | |
| Romany Life 242: The mush of to-day is useful for a few weeks only, then you buy a new one. | |
| Headless Lady (1987) 29: A mush is an umbrella and a skinned mush, consequently, a cane. | |
| et al. DAUL 143/2: Mush. A stolen umbrella. |
(b) (US Und.) a confidence game played at a ball park where the confidence trickster poses as a bookmaker, taking bets, then raises an umbrella and disappears into the area where everybody is holding umbrellas.
| Big Con 302: The MUSH. A short-con game played at the ball parks. The operator poses as a bookmaker, takes money for bets, then raises his umbrella (the mush) and disappears into the maze of umbrellas in the bleachers. |
2. in pl., mushrooms.
| Sport (Adelaide) 10 July 3/6: Flo. H. [...] and The Unknown went out mushrooming [...] No mushes up the creek, is there? | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Sudden Times 155: Mushrooms! Look at the lovely mush! | |
| Zack’s Snacks Restaurant, London, WC1 Item on Menu : Bubble, Mush, Toms, Beans (veg). |
In compounds
one who advertises themselves as a mender of umbrellas, or pedlar, but may well use this respectable job as a cover for more fraudulent pursuits; thus mush-fake v.; mush-faking n.
| Autobiog. 56: We met in with Tom Wilson, alias Tommy Twenty, a mush toper feeker. | |
| Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 155: Itinerant umbrella makers [...] pass shofell, i.e. bad money, and are called mushroom fakers. | |
| Mysteries of London III 85/1: A Stranger—looked like a mushroom-faker. Lily benjamin . | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 66: MUSH FAKER, an itinerant mender of umbrellas. | |
| Vocabulum 57: mushroom-fakers Umbrella hawkers. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor II 115/2: The term [...] has become very generally condensed among those who carry on the trade – they are now mush-fakers. [...] The mushroom-fakers will repair any umbrella on the owner’s premises. | |
| glossary in Occurence Book of York River Lockup in (1999) 37: Was a mushroom faker, has been on the steel for snamming a wedge sneezer so I must hoop it. | |
| Street Life in London (1969) 108: The real ‘mush-fakers’ are men who not only sell but can mend and make umbrellas. [...] he gradually obtains a stock of very old umbrellas, and by taking the good bits from one old ‘mushroom’ and adding it to another, he is able to make [...] a tolerable stout and servicable gingham. | |
| Newcastle Courant 2 Sept. 6/5: In the guise of a mushroom-faker he had been out to take stock of a likely crib. | |
| Manchester Courier 28 Jan. 10/5: There was an inevitable ‘mush-faker’ putting on a new ferule on an umbrella. | |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: Mushroom Fakers - Umbrella makers and repairers. | |
| Police! 321: Umbrella menders ... Rib-doctors, mushroom fakers. | |
| Yorks. Eve. Post 15 Apr. 1/7: [The] variety of occupations adopted by tramps is enormous [...] There are ‘mushfakers,’ ‘chaneyfakers’ (menders of china), ‘cadeyfakers’ or ‘grubbers’ (hatters) and so on. | |
| Signor Lippo 91: My old man was a romany and got his dudder by chinay-faking and mush-faking. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 51: Mushroom Fakers, umbrella hawkers. | |
| Tramping with Tramps 240: The ‘mush faker,’ or umbrella peddlar and mender, and the ‘fawny man’. | |
| Leamington Spa Courier 20 Sept. 7/1: There are a great many tramps staying in this district at the present time [...] We have among us [...] ‘mush fakers’ (umbrella menders). | |
| Morn. Tulsa Dly World (OK) 13 June 19/3: Mush fakir — A traveling umbrella mender. | |
| Mother of the Hoboes 43: The Rating Of The Tramps. 7. Mush Faker. 8. Mush Rigger: umbrella mender who learned trade in penal institution. [Ibid.] 82: They found a razor they knew to have belonged to Boston Whitey, the mush faker. | |
| Gay-cat 303: Mush-Fakir — a mender of umbrellas The mush-fakir makes a practice of collecting umbrellas to mend and of not returning them. | |
| Hobo 99: The Mushfaker is a man who sells his services. He may be a tinker, a glazier, an umbrella mender, or he may repair sewing machines or typewriters. Some mushfakers even pose as piano tuners. [Ibid.] 100: [From A No. 1, The Famous Tramp] 7. Mush Faker & 8. Mush Rigger. Umbrella mender who learned trade in penal institution. | |
| Milk and Honey Route 35: A hobo who goes about mending umbrellas, and soldering teapots is known as a ‘mush-faker’. | |
| Hobo’s Hornbook 149: I’ve bugged-up, bo, and mush-faked – done time in old L.A. | |
| Romany Life 241: The mush-fakirs used to be in clover in the old days but in these days of cheap mass-production umbrellas, he finds it difficult. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 160: mush faker [...] an umbrella mender. | |
| et al. DAUL 143/2: Mush-faker. An umbrella thief who solicits umbrellas for repair and fails to return them. |