Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural shoo·flies.
- a child’s rocker having a seat supported between two boards cut and painted to resemble animals.
admonition to a pest, by 1867 (in baseball slang), from shoo (v.) + fly (n.). Popularized by a Dan Bryant minstrel song c.1870, which launched it as a catch-phrase that, according to H.L. Mencken, “afflicted the American people for at least two years.” Shoo-fly pie is attested from 1935.