subs. (vulgar).—In pl. = (1) an ill-made man (B. E.), and (2) a tight-laced girl (HALLIWELL). Hence TO SHOW ONE’S SHAPE = (1) to strip: specifically (old) ‘TO PEEL (q.v.) at the whipping-post’ (GROSE), and (2) to turn about and march off; STUCK ON ONE’S SHAPE = pleased with one’s appearance; ‘There’s a SHAPE for you’ = an ironical comment on a skeleton-like person or animal—a RACK-OF-BONES (q.v.); TO TRAVEL ON ONE’S SHAPE = to swindle, to live by one’s appearance; TO SPOIL ONE’S SHAPE = to be got with child; SHAPESMITH = a stay-maker; IN GOOD SHAPE = quite correct; TO CUT UP (or SHOW) ONE’S SHAPE = to frolic.
1678. COTTON, Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie [Works (1725), 74].
| My Son’s so big, (which rarely falls) | |
| About his ——, and Genitals, | |
| That I am half afraid lest he | |
| Should chance to SPOIL her Majesty. |
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, ii. 97. The French king who had SPOIL’D THE SHAPE … of several mistresses … had a mind to do the same by me.
1715. GARTH, Claremont, 98.
| No SHAPE-SMITH set-up shop, and drove a trade | |
| To mend the work wise Providence had made. |
1896. CRANE, Maggie, a Girl of the Streets, vi. Say, Mag, I’m stuck on yer SHAPE.
Verb. (colloquial).—To turn out; to behave.
1369. CHAUCER, Troilus and Criseyde, ii. 61.
| So SHOP it that hym fil that day a tene | |
| In love, for whiche in wo to bedde he wente. |
1605. SHAKESPEARE, Cymbeline, v. 5, 346.
| Their dear loss, | |
| The more of you ’twas felt, the more it SHAPED | |
| Unto my end of stealing them. |
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, xxxvii. ‘Well, I’m in your power, now,’ says he, ‘let’s see how you’ll SHAPE.’ Ibid., xxii. We shall have to SHAPE after a bit.
1891. N. GOULD, The Double Event, 123. I am very anxious to see how my horse SHAPES.
1893. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 71, ‘On the Glorious Twelfth.’ But Briggs or no Briggs I SHAPED spiffin, magenta-and-mud-colour checks.
1898. N. GOULD, Landed at Last, v. ‘He SHAPES as well as ever.’… ‘Moves splendidly.’
1900. DELANNOY, “£19,000,” xxvi. How do you SHAPE?… Without bedclothes and with rodent company, or will you give me the letter I ask for now? Ibid., xxix. He seems to be SHAPING himself for a strait jacket.
1902. Pall Mall Gazette, 7 Feb., 1, 2. We should wait to see how he SHAPED, before deciding whether he was a personage to be encouraged or taught his place.
