Definition of shove up

The expression "shove up" is a colloquial phrase that originated in the mid-19th century in British English. It is a informal term for pushing or forcing something, particularly a person or an object, up or higher than its usual position. The origins of the phrase can be traced back to the British coal mining industry of the 1800s. Miners would use silk handkerchiefs or scarves, called "dockets," to wipe their sweat and dirt from their faces inside the coal mines. At the end of the day, they would have to return these dockets to the miners' subsidiary company stores, from where they were issued at the start of the day. Due to the infrequent and irregular visits of the companies' representatives to the mining sites, the miners would often delay returning the dockets, leading to accumulation of dirty and soiled dockets. To address this issue, the mining companies began storing the dockets in a specialized vertical structure called the "docket up," which was essentially a tall wooden frame with several shelves on top of each other. These frames were placed at a convenient spot in the pit heads or at the pit bottoms where the miners could conveniently deposit their dockets as they went up and down the tunnels. The act of pushing or shoving the dockets to the topmost shelf was termed "shove up." Over time, the phrase "shove up" began to transcend its usage in coal mines, and eventually spread to other contexts, where it comes to mean forcing or pushing anything higher or upward than usual.