shill
a person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating, as at a gambling house, auction, confidence game, etc.
a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.
to work as a shill: He shills for a large casino.
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 of shill
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use shill in a sentence
He first brought an unknown partner, a respectable-looking fellow as shills go, into the act.
The site shills an assortment of tweeny, vaguely Blair Waldorfy dresses, sweaters and coats.
72-Year-Old Chinese Grandfather Models Teen Girl's Clothes | Melissa Leon | November 20, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThe mix is particularly successful in the context of a billboard that shills only for itself.
When a regulator could be staffed by shills for the industry it was supposed to oversee, it was.
He was playing against the house now, the two other players were obvious shills, and a crowd had jammed solidly around to watch.
Deathworld | Harry Harrison
Somebody's shtole thim, fir the birrd niver ate thim, shills an' all.
The Believing Years | Edmund Lester Pearson
British Dictionary definitions for shill
/ (ʃɪl) /
slang a confidence trickster's assistant, esp a person who poses as an ordinary customer, gambler, etc, in order to entice others to participate
Origin of shill
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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