wiper n.
1. a (cotton) handkerchief.
 | Masque of Owls n.p.: Wipers for their noses [F&H]. | |
| , , | ![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Jim Crow’ 🎵 I tie a wiper round my neck. | |
| Vocabulum. | |
| Down in Tennessee 94: Quick, Leftenant! guv me yer wiper. | |
| Bushrangers 284: Hopeful’s remarks were caused by Hackett suddenly stooping and picking up a handkerchief stained with blood [...] ‘It’s her wiper,’ the young man said. | |
| Morpeth Herald 27 Oct. 5/3: If a thief took a silk pocket handkerchief it was called a ‘solicitor’, but if it was only a cotton one, a ‘wiper’ . | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bushranger’s Sweetheart 32: ‘Wiper not so safe though, eh?’ He produced and flourished gracefully his silk handkerchief. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 94: Whiper [sic], a kerchief. |
2. a severe physical blow, a harsh verbal attack, anything that will overwhelm an opponent.
| DSUE (8th edn) 1344/1: from mid-1840s. |
3. an impudent boy.
| Vice Versa (1931) 39: An ill-conditioned young wiper as ever I see. |
4. a thug, a person who delivers physical blows.
| Dagonet Ballads 106: He got slick away, / And we’ve never heard nowt o’ the wiper, not a whisper. |
5. (US Und.) a hired killer.
| ‘Prison Parlance’ in AS IX:1 28: wiper. A gunman. | |
| Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |
6. see wiper-drawer
In compounds
(UK Und.) a stealer of handkerchiefs; thus wipe-drawing, wipe-hauling.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Wiper-drawer c. a Handkerchief Stealer. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Wiper Drawer. A pickpocket, one who steals handkerchiefs. He drew a broad, narrow, cam, or specked wiper; he picked a pocket of a broad, narrow, cambrick, or coloured handkerchief. |
| Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785]. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Wipe Drawer. A pickpocket, one who steals handkerchiefs. | |
| Oliver Twist (1966) 350: Serve me so again, and us two’ll dance upon nothing [...] or you ain’t a wiper and my name ain’t Bill Sykes. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 61: Doesn’t Bill stand chaff well – out and out – don’t get shirty at all; send I may live, if Billy arnt one of the cleanest wipe drawers as is, and a hout and hout tout for a pall or a mot. | |
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 97: wipe-hauler, a pickpocket who commits great depredations upon gentlemen’s pocket-handkerchiefs. | |
| Londres et les Anglais 318/2: wiper drawers, filous dont la spécialité est dé faire le mouchoir. | |
| Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859]. | |
| Autobiog. of a Gipsey 414: I used to prac-tize wipe-hauling, tail-buzzing, and thimble-twisting. |
In phrases
(UK Und.) to steal a pocket handkerchief.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Nim the Wiper, c. to Steal the Handkerchief. [Ibid.] Nap the Wiper, c. to Steal the Handkerchief [Ibid.] Bite the wiper c. to Steal the Hand-kerchief. [Ibid.] He drew a broad, narrow, cam, or Speckt Wiper, c. He Pickt-pockets of a broad, or narrow, Ghenting, Cambrick, or Colour’d Handkerchief. | |
| Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) II 202: Bite the wiper c. to Steal the Hand-kerchief. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| Mother Gin 9: The feeding kids that wipers bite (A kid signifies, in the Canting Dialect, a child; and to bite the wiper is to steal the handkerchief). | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| Flash Dict. n.p.: drawing a wiper picking a pocket of a handkerchief. | |
| Modern Flash Dict. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 118/1: Drawing a Wiper picking a pocket of a handkerchief. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. |