shill

Meaning

Noun

1. A person paid to endorse a product while pretending to be impartial.
2. Any person enthusiastically endorsing a product; especially, one who is getting paid for the endorsement.
3. An accomplice at a confidence trick during an auction or gambling game, such as an accomplice of the seller who bids to drive up the price.
4. A house player in a casino.

Verb

To promote or endorse in return for payment, especially dishonestly; sometimes extended sarcastically even to those not paid but strongly biased in favor.

Verb

To put under cover; to sheal.

Verb

To shell.

Concepts

shill

decoy

fake buyer

claque

applauder

underboss

stool pigeon

brother

buddy

cobber

comrade

crony

friend

marra

marrow

partner

puchito

yaar

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʃɪl/

Etymology

Unknown; attested as verb 1914, as noun 1916. Perhaps an abbreviation of shillaber, attested 1913. The word entered English via carny, originally denoting a carnival worker who pretends to be a member of the audience in an attempt to elicit interest in an attraction.
Speculatively an extended form of German Schieber (“black marketeer, profiteer”) via *shi-la-ber.
There are some suggestions that it originates in the surname Shilaber or Shillibeer, especially George Shillibeer, but proposed origins are dubious as the word is first attested in North America in the 20th century, while proposed models are 19th century British.
American humorist Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber (1814–1890) was known to write under the name Mrs. Ruth Partington to lend credibility to some of his ideas. This is one more possible origin of the word, although there is no specific evidence supporting a connection.