Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a confidence trickster; a cheating gambler.

1669		R. L’Estrange Fables of Anianus (1692) CCXLI 218: There is No Pleasanter Encounter, then a Tryal of Skill betwixt a Couple of Sharpers to Over-reach One Another.
1684		Eve Revived 22: He [...] Stole out of the Colledge Gate, and went to find out a sharper whom he knew would help him in Stealing away the Religious out of a desire of Money. He found that honest Male content bent to do him Service.
1690		‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests II 173: These two Fellows were a Couple of Sharpers and their Fingers itch’d to compass this Money.
1697		Cibber Woman’s Wit III vii: A Sharper is a very good trade.
1708		Humours of a Coffee-House 2 Jan. 81: I have provided a Gamester or the Picket-Players [...] a Sharper for the Rakes.
1714		A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 48: He left his young Merchant in the lurch, [...] with a lamentable story of Sharpers.
c.1717		‘A Petition to the Ladies’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 102: No Sharpers are here with Cheats to entrap Ye.
1729		J. Gay Polly III v: D’you take me for a sharper, Sir?
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 87: They say, she plays deep with Sharpers, that cheat her of her Money.
1742		Bilker Bilk’d Persons who speak in the Bilker Bilk’d: Vizard, a Sharper.
1756		Memoirs of an Oxford Scholar 54: In a few Minutes we were in the Throng of Bullies, Sharpers, Pimps, Pickpockets and Gentlemen.
1765		Lord Holland in Jesse George Selwyn (1843) I 387: Who can doubt of Affligio’s being a sharper.
1770		R. King Frauds of London 74: The Sharper, generally having had a liberal and genteel education [...] has more the power of delusion at will, than the unlettered cheat.
1786		Proceedings Old Bailey 30 Aug. 1105/1: He had been robbed, and wanted somebody to assist to pursue them; the Major knew nothing of this town as we do, for you seldom get much assistance in those houses to which the sharper himself conducts you.
1798		T. Morton Speed the Plough IV ii: He told me you had been duped of your fortune by sharpers.
1809		J. Mackcoull Abuses of Justice 89: The deluded tradesman has no clue by which he can find out the sharpers.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 232: Tom Brazen, a noted Irish sharper, went into a church in Lisbon [etc].
1819		P. Hawker Diary (1893) I 4 Mar. 166: [I] was forced to [...] pass a second night aong the myriads of sharpers by whom you are every instant imposed on.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London II 51: The Sharper, who has generally had a genteel education, is a person of good address and conversation, has more the power of delusion at will than the unlettered cheat, devoid of address and other requisites to complete the pretended gentleman. [...] On entering the coffee-house, tavern, or gaming-house, the Sharper views you with attention, and is not long before he becomes acquainted and very intimate with you; if you agree to his proposal to play, if he cannot beat you by fair, he will by foul means.
1829		Sydney Gaz. 11 Apr. 3/3: I have been preyed upon by sharks, sharpers, flash-men, fencers, rum coves, squatters, nippers, lifters, and all the tag-rag-and-bobtail denoted by the worst words in the Slang Dictionary.
1831		‘Gallery of 140 Comicalities’ Bell’s Life in London 24 June 4/1: Here you hold unbounded rule, / O’er swindlers, blacklegs, dandies, doxies, / The flat and sharper, knave and fool.
1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 578: Nor did it mark him out as the prey of ring-droppers, pea and thimble-riggers, duffers, touters, or any of those bloodless sharpers, who are, perhaps, a litle better known to the Police.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 115: Blacklegs, adventurers, thieves, and sharpers, of every description.
1857		Bell’s Life in Sydney 8 Aug. 3/1: Mary Ann Dawson was brought before the Bench for shoplifting, and the evidence of the prosecutrix, Julia Sharp, clearly proving her to be a ‘sharper’, she was sentenced to be imprisoned.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 385/2: In one gang, a sharper is dressed as a coachman in livery, and in another they have a confederate attired as a parson.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 292/2: He was determined to sharp the sharpers. And he did to rights.
1868		J.D. McCabe Secrets of the Great City 542: ‘Keep the watch!’ cried the spectators, delighted that, for once, the sharper had met his match.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 155: He had already done too much swindling in Washington, and exposure would drive him from it, and brand him as a sharper wherever he went.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 6: Mug - One who is practised upon by sharpers.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 143: The miller would bet no more, remarking to me, ‘I think you are a sharper’.
1890		Sporting Times 4 Jan. 6: The man that staked a large sum that at ten o’clock the next morning the largest number of cats would be found on the side of the street facing South was a sharper, and the poor fellow taken in was a duffer indeed, and might have known that cats liked the sunshine.
1891		Chicago Trib. 28 June 10/2: When it reaches the sharper’s turn to shuffle a third associate [...] will divert the attention of the banker.
1896–9		(?) H. Lawson ‘A Gentleman Sharper and Steelman Sharper’ in Roderick (1972) 225: Two mornings later the sharper suggested a stroll.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 17 Nov. 100: Hurd was evidently a sharper.
1909		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 17 Apr. 11/5: He was really a professional card sharper.
1911		Gem 2 Dec. 4: He mentioned that name as that of an unscrupulous sharper.
1912		Vancouver Dly World 28 June 37/3: You might divide card swindles into two classes — where the sharper uses his own cards, and where he uses new cards.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 3 Apr. 5/2: Bill L was seen knocking about with the card sharpers .
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 223: Drooping, loose-lipped mouths and half-comprehending eyes; the sharply-marked face of the habitual ‘sharper’.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 16: In earlier times sharpers were also known as Greeks.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 145: The roper must never leave the impression [...] that he is a sharper.
1941		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 23 Oct. 17/3: None of the sharpers would admit as much but it leaked out afterwards that the Colonel and the stranger were two of the slickest card manipulators ever to visit our sunny land.
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl. §461.19: confidence man, sharp, sharpie, sharpy, sharpster.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 190/2: Sharp or Sharper. 1. A skilful card cheat; a crooked gambler. 2. An expert.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 152: I ain’t got no business playin cards with sharpers no ways.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 137: Wearing a derby hat, a vest with nothing underneath it and long striped sharpster pants.
1968		(con. c.1900) J. Thompson King Blood (1989) 77: there’s a flock of sharpers and high-binders floddin’ into El Reno.

2. in a non-criminal context, a trickster.

1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 432: Go where he would, these sharpers mind him, / And follow pretty close.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 252: [as cit. 1772].

3. a thief.

1780

Button-Maker’s Jests 5: A sharper having snatched a hat off a gentleman’s head, he pursued [etc].

4. someone who sees themselves as ‘clever’.

1949

R. Chandler Little Sister 218: We got to have sharpers with private licences hiding information.