Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. any form of cheat or schemer.

1582		Stanyhurst Of Virgil his Æneis II: A lyer hym neauer may she make, nor cogger unhonest.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Is’t My Storey’ in Collection of Songs I 92: I’ve sat up all night in the morning, / ’Mongst black legs, and coggers, and pigeons, and noodles.
1835		‘Cock-Eyed Sukey’ in Cove in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 218: Tell me, ye jolly coggers, tell me true, / Is my man Willium nail’d among your crew?
1845		Thackeray Misc. II (‘Leg of the Rhine’) 88: He is a cogger of dice, a chanter of horse-flesh [F&H].
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 180: Dice-coggers, three-card throwers, red and black dealers, strap players and their ilk, with their cappers, generally of the worst rowdy order, have been met with at fairs and other public gatherings.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) VI 1220: There are great difficulties in getting at a woman privately on board large ships [...] But it’s done. Cunt and cock are craft coggers.
1907		Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 4 May 7/5: Schoolboy Slang [...] The master has ‘jerried to the cogger’s lurk,’ ‘tumbled to his dart,’ or ‘dropped to his game’ .
1954		‘Flann O’Brien’ ‘Nescience’ in Hair of the Dogma (1989) 60: The other big [...] thing about cogging is that the great majority of coggers are incapable of discharging this simple chore accurately.

2. a card-sharp.

a.1618

J. Harington Epigrams III No. 14: As first, a Broker, then a Petty-fogger, / A Traueller, a Gamster, and a Cogger.