Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also mocher, mootcher, mouchard) a petty thief.

c.1460		Towneley Mysteries ‘Play of the Dice’ line 169: And there is nothyng me so lefe As murder a mycher and hang a thefe.
1530		Palsgrave Lesclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse n.p.: Substances: Mecher, a lytell thefe [...] Micher, a lytell thefe.
1846		Globe (London) 26 Dec. 4/5: They were part of a gang of fellows called ‘moocher.’ [...] a term applied to cheats, who went about obtaining liquor without the means of paying for it.
1853		Dickens ‘Slang’ in Household Words 24 Sept. 75/2: Thieves are prigs, cracksmen, mouchers, gonophs, go-alongs.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 153: We have plenty of rogues in our body corporate yet. [...] the nightside of London is fruitful in ‘macemen,’ ‘mouchers,’ and ‘go-alongs.’.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 130/1: Get out, you little sneak; it was only yesterday you said I was a moocher.
1877		J. Diprose London Life 80: The group principally consists of slovenly women, dirty children and disreputable-looking young men Mouchards.
1895		Anaconda Standard (MT) 15 Dec. 10/1: [headline] Moocher Has a Snap.
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 147: Moocher, Mōcher, Moucher. A skulker, a hedge robber.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 3 June 9/3: [from McClure’s Mag.] The Moocher was a ‘dip’ in a dilettante sort of way, and his particular graft was boarding street cars.
1911		L. Pound ‘A Second Word-List From Nebraska’ in DN III:vii 545: mootch, v. Take, sneak, sponge. ‘Some one mootched my handkerchief.’ ‘He mootched off his roommate.’ Hence the agent-noun, mootcher, ‘You’re a mootcher’.
1999		(con. 1900s) R. Doyle A Star Called Henry (2000) 10: A couple of mochers that nobody knew were caught helping themselves to the bottles of stout.
1907		E. Dyson ‘Two Battlers and a Bear’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Sept. :

2. a beggar.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 22: moucher n. Beggar. Th.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 108/1: Huling moochers, who depended more upon the generosity of the fearless ‘gun’ than upon their own exertions.
1874		M. Clarke Term of His Natural Life (1897) 51: The other two were a man named Sanders, known as ‘the Moocher,’ and Jimmy Vetch the ‘Crow’.
1885		Indoor Paupers 39: Tiptop-spree men, mouchers, thieves, and bullies make many recruits, especially among the juniors.
1892		Arbroath Herald 20 Oct. 2/5: ‘Here’s a moocher on the beer’ / [...] / An’ he had drunk his last bawbee / Wi’ some orra, ragged quean.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 117: I’s been a moocher. [Ibid.] 249: I found but one interesting moocher, and that a moocheress.
1902		Wash. Times (DC) 14 Sept. 10/4: Moucher — A beggar.
1904		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 17 Dec. 4/1: The moocher [is] a man who lives off other people [...] As a rule the moocher is ready to tell a true tale of distress.
1913		S.F. Bulletin 21 Feb. 12: Like the fat man of tradition no one loves a ‘Moocher’. Everyone has at least idea of what a ‘Moocher’ is.
1915		H.F. Day Landloper 31: ‘A moucher,’ observed the man by the fire.
1917		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 21 June [synd. col.] The ‘Moochers’ are of that strange breed who want to get something for nothing.
1927		(con. 1918) J.W. Thomason Red Pants 186: Lay offa Bozo, you low moocher – I got seconds on that butt myself.
1932		F. Jennings Tramping with Tramps 211: Moucher – a professional beggar.
1937		J. Worby Other Half 62: I’m a good moocher and I can always get a dollar or two off mugs in the cities.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1956		F.O. Beck Hobohemia 25: Others are ‘moochers’ who get the sort of living they have by begging outright.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 89: Although Moise and I were not moochers (by profession), we had no objection to a host staking us to filet mignon and Château Yquem.
1970		San Diego Sailor 2: Those broads, they’re all moochers.
1970		D. Ponicsan Last Detail 104: I feel like a moocher, I don’t have a dime.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 190: Jerks like Salazar and Murdock . . . they were nothing but dilettantes. Moochers doing a trade.
1994		(con. 1930s) K.C. Kearns Dublin Tenement Life 59: Not only did family and friends relish a good wake but ‘moochers’ were inevitably lured by the free drink, food, and fun of it all.
2018		NYR Dly 9 July 🌐 And when the Man handed over our food stamps, we were called moochers, a drain on our country.

3. (also mootcher) a loafer, a loiterer.

1857		Paul Pry (London) 15 Aug. n.p.: Thomas C—k [...] not to crow so much of his skittle playing [...] and to use better language in his singing, when he is rolling home of a morning. How is Susan, Tom? I see you are still a moocher.
1866		Sportsman 20 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] How many broken-down, gin-and-water-on-the-brain ex-stableboys and present ‘mouchers’ are there loafing about Newmarket .
1901		Eve. Post 17 July 2/6: Izaih Meechan [...] pleaded not guilty of having behaved in a riotous manner. [...] It was also stated that accused was a typical case of the ‘West Port moocher’.
1906		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 22 July 12/5: ’I ain’t no moocher. You can’t say I’m a moocher, he said hotly.
1907		E. Dyson ‘Two Battlers and a Bear’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Sept. 486/1: The Proselyte was a born moocher and ‘the company’ had been stranded at Yam for three days now.
c.1910		H. Champion ‘I’m Henery the Eighth I Am’ [monologue] Soon with one or two moochers I was holding up the Crown.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 202: mootcher, moocher, moucher, hanger on at a saloon. ‘Lang’s saloon is a mootcher’s headquarters.’.
1915		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 21 May [synd. cartoon] Listening to a Moocher Explain to the Lunch Man Why It Is He Tears into the Free Lunch So Hard.
1926		K.S. Prichard Working Bullocks 192: There were those who said he went for the drink; others that Red was a ‘moocher’ and liked to ride by himself.
1943		W.R. Burnett Nobody Lives for Ever 242: Shake [was] holding forth to a couple of seedy-looking moochers, who were listening to him politely—after all this fat guy was buying them drink after drink!
1958		R. Chandler Playback 124: They’re moochers, no-goods, the usual trash.
1970		H.E. Bates A Little of What You Fancy (1985) 556: At first she guessed it to be one of those Sunday moochers who occasionally turned up.
1994		(con. 1930s) K.C. Kearns Dublin Tenement Life 198: His nickname was ‘Turkey Hole’ O’Hara – he was a moocher.
1999		Indep. Rev. 30 Oct. 11: The youthful Jacques Tati was something of a feckless moocher.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 174: Rents were not collected. Other houses had been squatted by moochers.

4. (drugs) a drug addict.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 140/2: Moocher. [...] 2. (Obsolescent) A narcotic addict.

5. a gangster.

1995

(con. 1950) B. Helgeland L.A. Confidential [film script] Meyer Harris Cohen, Mickey C to his fans. He’s the big moocher, local L.A. color to the nth degree. You know Mickey.