verb. (old coaching).—See quot. Hence SHOULDER-STICK = a passenger not on the way-bill: see SHORT-ONE and cf. SWALLOW.
1828. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Living Picture of London, 33. SHOULDERING, among coachmen and guards, is that species of cheating their employers in which they take the fares and pocket them, generally of such passengers as they overtake on the road, or who come across the country to the main road, and are not put down in the way-bill.
1886. The Athenæum, 16 Jan., 99, 1. Some amusing anecdotes of what was known as ‘SHOULDERING’ are here related. This generation requires to be informed that the expression meant in coaching days allowing more than the number the coach authorized to carry was to ride in or upon it. Of course such a permission meant extra fees and payment to the coachman and guard, and was a direct fraud on the proprietors.
1888. W. O. TRISTRAM [The English Illustrated Magazine, June, 623], ‘Coaching Days and Coaching Ways.’ ‘SHOULDERING’ in the tongue of coachmen and guards meant taking a fare not on the way bill and unknown to the proprietor.
A SLIP OF THE SHOULDER, subs. phr. (old).—Seduction.
See COLD SHOULDER, WHEEL.
