shovel-board, ˈshuffleboard
(ˈʃʌv(ə)lbɔəd)
Forms: α. 6 shovillabourde, shovelaborde, 7 shovell a board, shouleaborde, shovelabord, showlibord, shovellabord. β. 6–7 shovelboord, 7 shovell-boord, sholven borde, shovell board, shuel board, 7– shovel-board. γ. 6 shoffle-, shoofle-, 7 shufle-, 8 shuffell-.
[The earliest form shovill-, shovelabourd, is an unexplained alteration of shove-board. There does not seem to be any connexion with shovel or shuffle.]
1. a. A game in which a coin or other disk is driven by a blow with the hand along a highly polished board, floor, or table (sometimes ten yards or more long) marked with transverse lines. The game is out of use in England, but is still played (with some modifications of form) in the U.S. Cf. slide-groat, shove-groat, shove-board.
The modern game as played in the U.S. is always called shuffleboard; in historical references to the older game the usual form is shovel-board.
| α 1532 Privy Purse Exp. Hen. VIII (1827) 188 Paied to my lord Wylliam for that he wanne of the kinges grace at shovillaborde ix li. 1575 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 364 All unlawfull games, as..tables, bowlls, shovelaborde. 1656 in Verney Mem. (1907) II. 40 That you..keep showlibord playing..on sondaies contrary to order. 1688 Nottingham Rec. V. 352 Wee present William Finn for keeping men plaing att shouell-abord in his seller. |
| β 1613 Beaum. & Fl. Cupid's Rev. iii. i, How haue you sped heere at home at shouelboord? 1672 Shadwell Miser iii. i. Wks. 1720 III. 47 He has already lost his Edward Shillings that he kept for Shovel-board. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. vii. (1710) 205 The Citizens and Peasants have..Cricket, Skittles, or Nine-Pins, Shovel⁓board, [etc.]. 1873 Bennett & ‘Cavendish’ Billiards 3 Before the introduction of Billiards the fashionable game on a board was shovel-board. |
| γ 1577–86 Stanyhurst Chron. Irel., Hen. VIII, 86/2 in Holinshed, Plaieng at slidegrote or shoofleboord. 1736 Carte Ormonde II. 178 The Marquis chose to sit up all night at shuffleboard with four Suffolk malsters. 1884 Harper's Mag. Jan. 235/2 Checkers and shuffle-board were in requisition. |
† b. = shovel-board shilling.
Obs.| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. i. i. 159 Seauen groates in mill-sixpences, and two Edward Shouelboords [Qo. 1602, Two faire shouell boord shillings]. |
c. The table upon which the game was played.
| 1603 Inv. in Gage Hengrave (1822) 22 Itm, one long table for a sholven borde. a 1660 Prince d'Amour, etc. 163 A new shuel board whereon never stood food. 1666 Wood Life, etc. (O.H.S.) II. 96 Dice, cards, sketells, shuffle-boards, billiard tables. 1724 J. Macky Journ. Eng. & Scot. II. iii. 40 [In] the Hall..is a Marble Shuffleboard. 1843 Lytton Last Bar. ii. iii, He was laughing loud with a knot of young men by the shovel-board. |
2. transf. A game played (
orig. on shipboard, now also on a court) by pushing wooden or iron disks with a cue (called a
shovel) so that they may rest on one of nine squares of a diagram chalked on the deck or marked on the court.
The usual form is now
shuffleboard.
| 1836 T. Power Impressions of Amer. I. 14 Shuffle⁓board, chess, and backgammon, with exercise and pleasant converse, will while away the intervening hours. 1851 J. D. Lewis Across Atlantic 6 That ignominious game called shovel-board, which consists in stooping down and projecting flat slabs of wood at figures chalked on the deck. 1877 Black Green Past. xxviii. 224 There were rope quoits got out too; and the more energetic shovel-board. 1886 R. C. Leslie Sea-painter's Log. vi. 115 The long afternoon game of shuffle-board was interrupted by a break, in that clear sea-line to windward. 1932 E. Waugh Cruise in Work Suspended (1949) Papa is very good at the deck games especially one called shuffle board. 1967 Boston Sunday Herald 26 Mar. vi. 7/7 (Advt.), 500-ft. sandy beach, 3 pools, putting green, tennis, shuffleboard, supervised Kiddie Playground. 1977 ‘J. le Carré’ Hon. Schoolboy iv. 90 Sometimes she stayed for old-tyme dancing or a game of shuffleboard. |
3. attrib. and
Comb. as
† shovel-board piece,
† shovel-board play,
† shovel-board room,
† shovel-board table;
† shovel-board shilling, a shilling (sometimes of
Edw. VI; see 1 b) used in the game of shovel-board.
| 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 145 He might..strike me, like a *shovell-boord peece (being now a ledger) into the box. 1679 Lond. Gaz. No. 1435/4 Six or eight Shovel board peices of Silver. |
| 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 19 The game called *Shovel-board play. |
| 1631 Minute-bk. Archd. Essex 16 June, Others of the companye..ran into the *shovell board roome. 1653 Rowe Tragi-Comœdia *3 b, A Shufle-board-roome. 1602 *Shovel board shilling [see 1 b]. 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girl K 2, Away slid I my man, like a shouell-board shilling. |
| 1634 in Simpkinson Washingtons (1860) App. p. lxvii, Mending the covers of the *shovleaborde Table. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. ix. 383 The Shuffle-board table tho' ten yards, 1 foot, and an inch long is made up of about 260 pieces. 1719 D'Urfey Pills III. 273 A new Shuffle-board-table. 1738 Earl of Oxford in Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.) VI. 176 A fine table of white marble of a great length, made use of for a shovel board table. |