sham Abraham

• sham Abram

First attested in the late 18^th century.[1] From sham + Abraham man (“a beggar who pretends to be ill”)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ʃæm ˈeɪ.bɹəˌhæm/, /ʃæm ˈeɪ.bɹə.həm/

sham Abraham (third-person singular simple present shams Abraham, present participle shamming Abraham, simple past and past participle shammed Abraham)

1. (idiomatic, obsolete, Britain, thieves' cant) To pretend sickness or insanity.
   • 1759, Goldsmith, Oliver, The Works of Oliver Goldsmith‎, volume 3, published 1835, The Citizen of the World, Letter CXIX, page 331:

     The boatswain found me, as he said, an obstinate fellow: he swore that I understood my business perfectly well, but that I shammed Abraham merely to be idle.

   • 1849, Brontë, Charlotte, Shirley‎, volume 3, pages 219–220:

     Matthew, sceptic and scoffer, had already failed to subscribe a prompt belief in that pain about the heart: he had muttered some words, amongst which the phrase "shamming Abraham" had been very distinctly audible.

The term was used by workmen to mean taking time off work through this pretense. Used by sailors to mean being put on the sick list in order to shirk duty.

• do Abram, chuck a sickie, pull a sickie, throw a sickie

• See Thesaurus:shirk

• Abraham sham, Abram sham

• play possum

• [Francis Grose] (1788), “Sham Abraham”, in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd corrected and enlarged edition, London: Printed for S. Hooper, […], OCLC 3138643.
• [Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811), “Sham Abraham”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: Printed for C. Chappell, […], OCLC 23927885.
• “sham Abraham” in Albert Barrère and Charles G[odfrey] Leland, compilers and editors, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, volume I (A–K), Edinburgh: The Ballantyne Press, 1889–1890, page 8.
• Farmer, John Stephen (1890) Slang and Its Analogues‎, volume 1, page 10

• Abraham sham