1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
1887. Walford, Antiquarian, 252. s.v.
Mush- (or Mushroom-) faker (or Mush-topper-faker).—See quot. 1851.
Mushfaking = mending umbrellas.
1821. Haggart, Life, 56. Tommy Twenty, a mush-toper-faker.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab., ii. 28. In Umbrellas and Parasols
the second-hand traffic is large, but those vended in the streets
are nearly all ‘done up’ for street-sale by the class known as mush
or more properly mushroom fakers. Idem., ii. 127. The
umbrella-menders are known by an appellation of an appropriateness
not uncommon in street language. They are mushroom-fakers. The form
of the expanded umbrella resembles that of a mushroom, and it has
the further characteristic of being rapidly or suddenly raised, the
mushroom itself springing up and attaining its full size in a very
brief space of time. The term, however, like all street or popular
terms or phrases, has become very generally condensed among those
who carry on the trade—they are now mush-fakers, a word which, to
any one who has not heard the term in full, is as meaningless as
any in the vocabulary of slang.
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, 91. My old man ... got his dudder by
chinay-faking and mush-faking.
Mushroom, subs. (common).—1. A hat.