Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the penis.

1653

Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 44: And some of the other women would give these names, my Roger, my cockatoo, my nimble-wimble, bush-beater, claw-buttock, evesdropper, pick-lock, pioneer, bully-ruffin, smell-smock, trouble-gusset, my lusty live sausage.

2. (also eavesdropper) a robber of hen-houses.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. n.p.: Eve droppers, vagabonds who rob hen roosts.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 343/1: Eavesdropper (American thieves), a chicken thief, or low sneak or thief generally.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 227: Evesdropper, a mean thief; a chicken-stealer.

3. a burglar who lurks outside a house waiting for the chance to break in while the owners are absent; thus a petty thief.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: eves Dropper a Villain that lurks about the Doors of Houses, to watch his Opportunity to rob or steal.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1889–90		see sense 2.