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shinny1

[shin-ee]
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noun, plural shin·nies.
  1. a simple variety of hockey, played with a ball, block of wood, or the like, and clubs curved at one end.
  2. the club used.
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verb (used without object), shin·nied, shin·ny·ing.
  1. to play shinny.
  2. to drive the ball at shinny.
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Origin of shinny1

First recorded in 1665–75; variant of shin ye, cry used in the game

shinny2

[shin-ee]
verb (used without object), shin·nied, shin·ny·ing.
  1. shin1(def 5): He shinnied up the tree.
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Origin of shinny2

1850–55, Americanism; apparently derivative of shin1; source of -y is unclear
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for shinnied

Historical Examples

  • With considerable difficulty he had shinnied up the table leg, and had hoisted himself over the awkwardly projecting table edge.

    The Land of Footprints

    Stewart Edward White

  • Smaller images, no more than two inches high, shinnied up a table leg.

    Empire

    Clifford Donald Simak

  • Silently, the manikin clasped the nearest table leg, shinnied up and hauled himself over the top.

  • He must have lost his nerve when he made out your smoke and shinnied up there to stow away, taking the ship's papers with him.

  • Keeping a lookout over his shoulder he dragged the heavy lump of metal to the fence, boosted it over, and shinnied after it.

    In Pawn

    Ellis Parker Butler

Word Origin and History for shinnied

shinny

v.

"to climb a rope, pole, etc.," 1888, from use of shins and ankles to do so; see shin (n.). Earlier simply shin (1829). Related: Shinnied; shinnying.

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shinny

n.

also shinney, primitive form of hockey, 1670s, perhaps from Gaelic sinteag "a bound, a leap." OED suggests origin from shin ye "the cry used in the game."

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper