Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to obtain through trickery.

1697		Cibber Woman’s Wit I i: Let him [...] bilk his Lodging, – and now and then sharp a Play in the Side Box.
1714		A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 201: A curious Gold Medal, which he had sharp’d somewhere.

2. to trick, to defraud; thus sharping adj.; sharping n.

1683		Whores Rhetorick 84: She or he that intends to sharp a Bawd [...] must get up before Lucifer.
1691		Dryden King Arthur Prol. 38 n.p.: Among the rest there are a sharping set That pray for us, and yet against us bet [F&H].
1707		N. Ward Wooden World 13: Should a half-starv’d Sailor sharp a Pair of old Shoes from him, he would surely drub the pilfering Cur to Death for it.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 261: He was forced to make use of the wicked Wit he had learn’d, and turn as sharping a Town-Shift.
1762		O. Goldsmith Life of Richard Nash in Coll. Works (1966) III 348: He was gaming just now with a sharping fellow, and lost forty shillings.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 14 May n.p.: The principle trait in billiard sharping [...] is the art of practising deception.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 292/2: He was determined to sharp the sharpers. And he did to rights.
1872		Besant & Rice Ready-Money Mortiboy 148: It is not usual to see men play in your fashion. You have sharped us, sir – sharped us.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 26: The dirty little pothouse clubs — where ‘stay-at-home sportsmen’ sate and sharped each other.
1920		B. Cronin Timber Wolves 221: From the boss down, you’re a set of sharping blackguards.

3. (Polari) to steal, to house-break.

2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 297/2: sharper, sharp 1. to steal.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 37: Madame O and I did our latty-sharpering [in] East London.