DCHP-1 Online

shinny [< Scottish dial. shinny, shinty game played with a ball and curved sticks, perhaps < the whack of stick against shin]

• 1a n. a loosely organized game of ice hockey, played on ice without referees.

  See also: millpond hockey  shinty  

  • 1953  Most of the soldier boys [in Kingston, Ont.] were quite at home on skates. They could cut the figure eight and other fancy figures, but shinny was their first delight.
  • 1964  No shinny stuff for these boys . . . taught in big league style by Richard Caouette. . . .
  • 1965  They knew how difficult it was to obtain an adequate sheet of ice in Kingston for neighborhood "shinny."
  • 1965  A scrambly production usually held without benefit of referees, shinny is popular among youngsters.

• 1b n. a form of hockey played on a road or street by children using hockey sticks and, usually, a ball.

  See also: road hockey  

  • 1902  [Playing] shinny in the snow upon the roadway in front of the school was none too exciting.
  • 1910  . . . the boys and girls were playing "shinny," which is an old and honourable game, father or uncle of hockey.
  • 1963  But the boy playing shinny in the street may be dreaming of the NHL

• 2 n. Slang a sport played on ice on a board-enclosed rink by two teams of six men each whose object is to shoot a puck into the opponents' goal.

  See also: hockey  

  • 1963  Shinny lore has it that the schedule is much tougher in the second half.
  • 1966  This prompted the Canadian . . . to rise with drink in hand and deliver a half-hour defense of good old shinny.