Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a general term of abuse.

1629		Jonson New Inn II i: These base mechanics never keep their word.
1636		‘T.H.’ Discourse of Two Infamous Upstart Prophets 16 Apr. 11: The blind and besotted ignorance of these poore and sencelesse Mechanicks I leave to the consideration of any indifferent Reader.
a.1661		‘To Whom it Concerns’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 113: Go, ply your Trades, Mechanicks, and begin, / To deal uprightly, and Reform within.
1674		T. Duffet Epilogue Spoken by Heccate and Three Witches 31: Be damn’d you Whore! did fierce Mechanick cry, And most unlike a true bred Gentleman, Drunk as a Bitch he left me there in Pawn.
1683		Whores Rhetorick 50: You must forget the distinction of Gentleman, and Mechanick; but let men be divided in your Books under the names of Poor, Rich, Liberal, and Niggardly.
1697		Behn False Count I i: A little Citizen and Merchant – she so reviles, Calling me base Mechanick, Sawcy Fellow.
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 16: The High-Hall, where when you see them taking a Turn together, it would puzzle one to know which is the Gentleman, which the Mechanick, and which the Beggar.
1712		J. Arbuthnot Hist. of John Bull 22: Fellows of a low genius, poor grovelling mechanicks.
1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera III iv: Of all Mechanics, of all servile Handycrafts-men, a Gamester is the vilest.
1735		Pope ‘Satires of Dr. Donne’ Works II 151: Lord! Sir, a meer mechanic! stangely low, And course of phrase.
1740		Garrick Lethe Act I: Stow a lady of fashion with tradesmen’s wives and mechanics!
1751		W. Kenrick Falstaff’s Wedding (1766) II ix: Lo! there was I, jamm’d fast in the midst of a vile groupe of mechanics.
1760		Foote The Minor 64: Insolent mechanic!
1772		G. Stevens ‘Water’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 240: From Monarch to meanest Mechanic.
1781		G. Parker View of Society II 69: If you hear, Out glim, which is flash for ‘put out the candle,’ depend on it that your best way is to commence Mechanic, pick up your limbs.
1814		I. Pocock John of Paris II i: A princess dine with a mechanic! oh, monstrous degredation!
1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 215: Ay ev’ry step some odious face, / Of true mechanic cut, will place / Themselves plump in your way.
1839		W.A. MIles Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 138: Their dress is most frequently like a mechanic, shabby, with no attempt to be stylish.
1842		C. Mathews Career of Puffer Hopkins 2: The knot of tough-fisted mechanics kept its course, roaring out its rough sarcasms and great gusts of invective.
1867		Western Dly Press 6 Dec. 3/3: The dirty white apron twisted round the waist [...] gave a good ‘starving mechanic’ appearance to the prisoner.

2. (US gambling) one who invents methods of cheating.

1873

J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 213: Of the different methods of cheating at faro, none have been invented by sharpers, or even gamblers, but have principally emanated from the brains of mechanics.

3. (orig. US) a professional cheat at cards or dice; thus mechanic’s grip, a way of holding a deck of cards.

1938		(con. 1820s+) H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 14: In the heyday of American gambling, a first-class faro dealer, variously called a ‘mechanic’ and an ‘artist,’ was paid from $100 to $200 a week.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 198: What I must know is are you a mechanic at gin?
1953		Baker Aus. Speaks v. 121: Mechanic, a person who cheats at cards, especially a professional card sharp (Americans use mechanic for a dishonest player at faro).
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 141: As a card mechanic I was finished. My hands wouldn’t hold still for it any more.
1969		B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 91: I’m a first-class crap dealer. I’m a pretty good card mechanic, pretty good dice mechanic.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 187: I was a top-class mechanic and the bread was there.
1989		(con. 1940s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 64: He also supported himself as a pickpocket and as a ‘mechanic,’ or card shark.
1991		in J. Breslin Damon Runyon (1992) 143: [He] worked the card tables with [...] a card mechanic known as the Professor.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 113: Also the various signals that con men, boosters and card mechanics use.
2003		St Petersburg Times (FL) 17 Apr. 🌐 the reader does not learn how the dealer, an experienced card ‘mechanic,’ manipulated the cards so successfully.

4. any notably successful player.

1989

J. Morton Lowspeak.

5. (W.I.) a trick, a contrivance, usu. involving some form of physical activity.

1907

‘Chicken-Hawk’ in W. Jekyll Jam. Song and Story 94: They get Monkey an’ Goat to come an’ dance to let the sister laugh. They make all sort of mechanic.

6. (US Und.) a pickpocket or safe-breaker.

1933		H. Craigie ‘Reverse English’ Detective Nov. 🌐 He was an excellent ‘mechanic,’ too, in the crook sense.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 95: There were a very few ‘mechanics’ who could make an ordinary safer holler uncle.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 79: Learn those locks and keys. Get the touch. Get the feel [...] Us mechanics are the class in the outfits.

7. a trainer who uses drugs to stimulate his horses.

1952

in Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 22 Mar. 14/4: Such larcenous jockeys as used a small hand-batter to stimulate a steed to greater speed, used a joint or a machine and a trainer who stimulated his horses, internally or externally, was a mechanic.

8. a hired killer.

1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 250: Overnight he became the best grunt we had, a real killer, a mechanic.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1993		G.P. Pelecanos Nick’s Trip 235: ‘The tall man goes by the name of Solanis. Contract mechanic, from Miami. They say he killed a cop’.