shill

[shil] /ʃɪl/
noun
1.
a person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating, as at a gambling house, auction, confidence game, etc.
2.
a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.
verb (used without object)
3.
to work as a shill:
He shills for a large casino.
verb (used with object)
4.
to advertise or promote (a product) as or in the manner of a huckster; hustle:
He was hired to shill a new TV show.
Origin
1920-25; origin uncertain
Examples from the web for shill
  • Give writers more incentive and leeway to shill for the commercial sugar daddies without sacrificing narrative.
  • So it's not clear that the group is really acting as a shill for the wealthy as some suggest.
  • The epithet is nothing more than an unsubtle shill for taxpayers and fans to build a new stadium.
  • Dude, it is really bad form to shill your blog on a discussion board.
  • Yu is a brave voice for change or simply a well-placed shill.
  • Everyone knows the system can be gamed using shill accounts, friends, etc.
  • Only a true pharma-shill would pretend that vaccines work.
  • Once he's out he'll still have all his books and a radio show on which to shill them.
  • Now stating that same opinion will get one branded as a kook or a shill for the tobacco industry.
  • But even if a site doesn't use shill bids, there's a good chance you'll lose money.
British Dictionary definitions for shill

shill

/ʃɪl/
noun
1.
(slang) a confidence trickster's assistant, esp a person who poses as an ordinary customer, gambler, etc, in order to entice others to participate
Word Origin
C20: perhaps shortened from shillaber a circus barker, of unknown origin
Word Origin and History for shill
n.

"one who acts as a decoy for a gambler, auctioneer, etc.," 1916, probably originally circus or carnival argot, probably a shortened form of shillaber (1913) with the same meaning, origin unknown. The verb is attested from 1914. Related: Shilled; shilling.

Slang definitions & phrases for shill

shill

noun
  1. (also shillaber) An associate of an auctioneer, gambler, hawker, etc, who pretends to be a member of the audience and stimulates it to desired action: The shill is innocuous-looking (1916+ Circus)
  2. A barker, hawker, advertising or public relations person, or anyone else whose job is to stimulate business; flack (1940s+)
verb

: That summer he shilled for a sidewalk hawker (1914+)

[origin unknown; perhaps, since it is a shortening of shillaber, ultimately fr Shillibeer, the name of an early 1800s British owner of a large bus company, the reference being to persons hired as decoys to sit in buses and attract passengers]