or showfull, schofel, subs. and adj. (common).—Generic for anybody or anything questionable. Spec. SHOFUL, subs. = (1) base money (also SHOFUL MONEY): whence SHOFUL-PITCHER = a dealer in counterfeit; SHOFUL-PITCHING = SHOVING THE QUEER (q.v.); SHOFUL-JEWELLERY = pinchbeck gauds. Also (2) = a hansom cab (see quot. 1851), and SHOVEL (q.v.).
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 26. SHOWFULLS, bad money. Ibid., I. 279. A racketty place, sir [of a beer-shop], one of the SHOWFULLS; a dicky one; a free-and-easy. Ibid., II. 554. I don’t think those SHOFULS (Hansoms) should be allowed—the fact is, if the driver is not a tall man he can’t see his horse’s head. Ibid., III. 363. The Hansom’s, which are always called SHOWFULLS by the cabmen. SHOWFULL, in slang, means counterfeit, and the SHOWFULL cabs are an infringement on Hansom’s patent. Ibid. (1856), The Great World of London, 47. The SHOFUL-MEN, or those who plunder by counterfeits, as coiners and forgers of checks and notes, and wills.
1866. The London Miscellany, 3 March, 57, 3, ‘London Revelations.’ That … is old Finlaison the fence…. He used to be a SHOFUL MAN once—dealt in bad money, you know.
1882. SMYTHE PALMER, Folk-Etymology, s.v. SHOWFULL or SHOFUL. A cant term which originated amongst the Jews, and is the Heb. Shafal (or shaphal), low, base, vile, the word which David applied to himself when he danced before the ark.
1890. Tit-Bits, 15 March, 362. There wasn’t a SHOFUL on the stand; so I works the oracle, and drives him off easy.
1891. F. W. CAREW, No. 747. being the Autobiography of a Gipsy, 417. Palmer got down and heaved the sackful o’ SHOFUL into the river … and SHOFUL it were, right enough, hevery bloomin’ hounce. Ibid., 17. SHOFUL-PITCHING, fawney-rigging, and the thousand and one ingenious little devices whereby the impecunious endeavour to augment their balances at their bankers’.
1897. Daily Telegraph, 14 Sept., 9, 3. There is plenty of room for improvement in the accommodation which ‘growlers’ and SHOFULS offer to the bicycle.
1899. H. BEAUCHAMP and E. WELLS, (‘Pot and Swears’), The Scarlet City, 177. When I had despatched the telegram—I found Anthony ensconced in what he called a spicy SHOWFUL.
1901. BINSTEAD, More Gal’s Gossip, 86. He stopped the shabby SHOFUL.
