Andy Rooney
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The Conniving Roots of Shill
The action at the heart of the verb shill—promoting someone or something for pay—is not, on its face, unseemly. After all, that is what marketers and public relations firms do. But when someone is said to be shilling for something or someone there is a distinct note of disapproval, and often the implication that the act is somehow corrupt or dishonest, or that the product or person being promoted is not to be trusted. This connotation is actually the word’s birthright: in the early 1900s, the noun shill referred to a type of con artist, specifically one who aided others in their efforts to part people from their money. For example, a shill might be paid to fake a big win at a casino to make a game look easily winnable. The first uses of the verb shill, appearing around the same time as the noun, show it applying to the kinds of cons shills did, but the term eventually came to be used in cases when someone was simply promoting someone or something. Perhaps fitting for a word with a criminal past, shill has a mysterious origin: it’s thought to be a shortened form of the older synonymous term shillaber, but the etymological trail goes cold there.
Examples of shill in a Sentence
Justin Curto, Vulture, 7 Oct. 2024
The Trump decision follows a long line of cases in which the current majority has shilled for relentless forces that crave a powerful presidency, a weakened Congress, weaker protections for consumer and the environment, and the trampling of reproductive choice in favor of religious zealotry.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 5 Aug. 2024
Omar S. Bashir, Foreign Affairs, 24 Sep. 2012
Carrie will be with us for the whole ride and will quickly prove no mere Establishment shill.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 18 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for shill 
Dictionary Entries Near shill
Cite this Entry
“Shill.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shill. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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