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Glite Dictionary
to shill for

to shill for

4 9.1
To secretly say good things about someone or something because you are paid
  • phrasal verb
  • /ʃɪl fɔr/
  • Offensive
translation icon : hacer de reclamo para
  • She was shilling for a new brand of skincare products, hoping to earn some commission.

Shill for AMD and shill for Intel depending on which benchmark it is.

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Examples

  • And again, I am not shilling for this project at all.

  • The corporate media will always shill for the Republicans.

    Blog text (11)

  • Eventually, my father started shilling for him.

    Focus (2015)

  • Or is he simply shilling for Wall Street?

    Blog text (2)

  • I also know of no instances where he seemed to be shilling for the industry.

    Blog text (8)

  • The press will continue to shill for him and nothing will be done to reveal the truth.

    Blog text (29)

  • So, Paul... which one of the private, for-profit "education" companies are you shilling for?

    Blog text (29)

  • I met Chip when he was shilling for the City of Dawsonville at a public meeting.

    Blog text (23)

  • In the beginning, the Left dismissed Tea Partiers as a few fringe nuts shilling for the Republican Party.

    Blog text (8)

  • Albright went on to greater money, if not glory, by shilling for Qatar as a paid lobbyist.

    Blog text (26)

Synonyms

to propagandize
vsto shill for
  • Literature
5 9.1

To try to make many people believe false or one-sided information

is a private or insincere endorsement done for personal gain
to huckster
vsto shill for
  • Offensive
8.9

To sell goods in a pushy or dishonest way

is a secret or insincere endorsement aimed at personal advantage

Antonyms

to oppose
∞ 2.9

To be against something and try to stop it

How Deceptive

to shill for
  • Offensive
4 9.1
to plug
24 4.2
to promote
252 3.5

Surface Forms

shill for infinitive
shilled for past
shilled for past participle
shilling for present participle
shills for third person singular

Morphology

shill + for

The verb 'shill' already encodes the act of posing to endorse, and the preposition 'for' simply marks the beneficiary/target, so 'shill for' directly yields 'promote or endorse someone'. The nuance of insincerity or secretive promotion is part of the lexical meaning of 'shill', so a learner who knows both constituents can predict the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Shill for comes from old fairs and shows where a paid helper called a shill pretended to be a happy customer to get others interested. So, to shill for someone today means to secretly 'promote' them, often 'for money'.