shill

1 of 2

verb

ˈshil 

shilled; shilling; shills

intransitive verb

1

: to act as a shill

2

: to act as a spokesperson or promoter

the eminent Shakespearean producer … is now shilling for a brokerage house

—Andy Rooney

shill

2 of 2

noun

1

a

: one who acts as a decoy (as for a pitchman or gambler)

b

: one who makes a sales pitch or serves as a promoter

2

: pitch sense 8a

Did you know?

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

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

Even the young people hustling door-to-door in the Sunshine State, shilling solar panels in a desperate bid to become millionaires by 30, are, well, men. —Katie Drummond, WIRED, 13 Jan. 2025

Nearly every actor, musician, and Dancing with the Stars host seems to be shilling their own rosé wine. —airmail.news, 31 Aug. 2024

Noun

His other abiding project has been identifying what’s the matter with the Democrats, and his answer, which chimes with al-Gharbi’s, is that the Party’s upper ranks have been infiltrated by anti-populist corporate shills. —Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2024

The main villain of the piece, Simba’s dreadful uncle Scar, is a superior bad guy, pensive and brooding rather than angry or shill. —Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 21 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

perhaps short for shillaber, of unknown origin

First Known Use

Verb

circa 1914, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

circa 1916, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Podcast

Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox!