shoeblack
(ˈʃuːblæk)
[f. shoe n. + black v.]
a. One who cleans boots and shoes for a livelihood.
| 1778 Foote Trip to Calais i. (1778) 21 As I live, a couple of shoe-blacks. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. ix, Will the whole Finance Ministers..of modern Europe undertake to make one Shoeblack happy? |
| attrib. 1862 G. H. Townsend Man. of Dates s.v. Shoeblacks, The existing ragged school shoeblack brigade was founded in 1851. |
b. shoe-black plant = shoe-flower (
shoe n. 6 c). Also
ellipt.| 1837 J. Macfadyen Flora Jamaica I. 66 The flowers, from the mucilaginous juice they contain, are employed to give a polish to the leather of shoes; and hence the plant has received the name of the shoe-black. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Shoe-black,..a name in Jamaica for the Hibiscus rosa sinensis. 1866 Treas. Bot. I. 589/1 Hibiscus Rosa sinensis... These flowers..are used..in Java for blacking shoes, whence the plant is frequently called the Shoe-black Plant. 1965 Harper's Bazaar Feb. 18/3 The scarlet blossoms of the bush they [sc. Jamaicans] call the Shoe-Black. |
So
† shoe-blacker, a shoeblack.
shoe-blacking, (
a)
= blacking vbl. n. 3 b; (
b) the blacking and polishing of shoes.
| 1755 Johnson Dict., Japanner..2. A shoeblacker. 1843 M. A. Richardson Local Hist. Table Bk., Hist. II. Index, Shoe blacker. 1890 L. D'Oyle Notches 13 They were..the only persons possessed of shoe-blacking. 1902 Alice Terton Lights & Shadows in Hosp. x. 166 His interest in the shoe-blacking soon waned. |