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

This island, 74 square miles and the largest of the Southern Gulf cluster, is home to countless creatives, who’ll be shilling their wares during summer via the Salt Spring Market in Centennial Park every Saturday. —Mark Ellwood, AFAR Media, 8 May 2025

Interesting that it is being shilled by new age gurus. —Rustin Dodd, New York Times, 1 May 2025

Noun

To quote another Kellogg’s shill, the early indications suggest that this should still be a Grrreat! fall for sports TV, although some vendors may be reduced to eating cereal for dinner. —Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 25 Apr. 2025

Here, a pair of Marvel superheroes shill for A.I. glasses with an assist from the Kardashian matriarch. —Ryan Schwartz, TVLine, 9 Feb. 2025

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

Rhymes for shill

• bill
• brill
• chill
• drill
• fil
• fill
• frill
• gill
• grill
• grille
• jill
• kill

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