shinny
1 Americannoun
-
a simple variety of hockey, played with a ball, block of wood, or the like, and clubs curved at one end.
-
the club used.
verb (used without object)
-
to play shinny.
-
to drive the ball at shinny.
verb (used without object)
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of shinny1
First recorded in 1665–75; variant of shin ye, cry used in the game
Origin of shinny2
1850–55, apparently derivative of shin 1; source of -y is unclear
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For the climbing task, the winning design evolved two arms and two legs that help it shinny up a shaft like an ape.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 10, 2021
It’s not easy to practice in summer skates that are more like shinny than postseason hockey, but McDavid has taken it upon himself to try.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2021
Celestial shinny games just got a lot more rugged.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2019
“It doesn’t matter if we’re up or down; there’s something in the room – it’s almost like we’re playing shinny, we’re having fun.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2016
The trunk is too wide and icy to shinny up, though, and there are no low branches.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Zacchaeus shinnies down the tree and repents, saying that that he will repay anyone he has defrauded “four times as much.”
From Time ● Oct. 12, 2015
In Iron Men he shinnies up a vertical girder, using only his hands and his knees.
From Time Magazine Archive
Instead, she finds a tree behind the building and shinnies up as I watch from below, holding jay's cage.
From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman
Rani shinnies down the tree and lands beside me.
From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman
“Jo says Mrs. Merlin shinnies on her own side,” added Billy.
From Penny of Top Hill Trail by Lyford, Philip
That same day, the Associated Press reported, the male raccoon shinnied up a tall tree on the White House lawn, and, like Rebecca, would not come down.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 25, 2019
The parade stalled for 10 minutes until Mike Ferraro, a member of the volunteer parade route staff, shinnied up the light pole with a screwdriver and took down the sign.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 1, 2018
Fans shinnied up a traffic-light post outside the luxury hotel where the Lakers stayed, hoping to get a glimpse of Kobe Bryant boarding the team bus among dozens and dozens of cordoned-off people.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2015
Suddenly a young man shinnied up the sandstone column.
From Time Magazine Archive
Beowulf shinnied up the tree in which the snare was set and quickly cut the admiral down by gnawing through the rope with his teeth.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
And Gittens Anglaise, 43, of Colihaut, related tales of leaping from a window and shinnying across the water along electrical wires "like Rambo".
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2015
And members of the next generation like Jim Brady, 29, an astonishingly agile connector who grabs the steel with gloved hands and sets it in place, shinnying beams without a harness.
From New York Times ● Sep. 1, 2011
In the year of the census, Montana's grizzly bears are standing up -- or, rather, shinnying up against trees -- to be counted.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2010
They use electrical wires and cables to travel between units, experts said, adding that they’re also adept at shinnying up from sewers, through pipes and up into toilets.
From Washington Post
He could no more imagine Leslie chasing a boy than he could imagine Mrs. Double-Chinned Myers shinnying up the flagpole.
From "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
