Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a thief, as in ‘Thieves who knock at the doors of great houses in London, in summer time, when the families are gone out of town, and on the door being opened by a woman, rush in and rob the house’ (Grose, 1785).

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Rushers. Thieves who knock at the doors of great houses in London, in summer time, when the families are gone out of town, and on the door being opened by a woman, rush in and rob the house.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 317/2: rushers voleurs avec effraction, et principalement ceux qui frappent aux portes des maisons qu’ils savent gardées par une seule servante, la font taire en la menaçant et se retirent avec un ample butin.

2. a house-breaker who specializes in breaking into secluded houses.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Rushers, [...] house breakers, who enter lone houses by force.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1882		Dly Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 1 Nov. 3/3: ‘Rushers’ content themselves by robbing country houses.

3. (US) a ‘go-ahead’, fashionable person.

1839		N.O. Picayune 27 Mar. 2/2: ‘Aint he a rusher?’ bawls out still a third [DA].
1873		W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 187: She’s a rusher, now I tell you, and she’s almost as purty as my Martha.
1889		Century mag. (N.Y.) Oct. 874/1: The pretty girl from the East is hardly enough of a ‘rusher’ to please the young Western masculine taste [DA].
1908		Courier (Asheboro, NC) 13 Aug. 6/1: Mr Jones was a tall, slender wiry man. He was a man who had a spur in his head, wide awake, enterprising and a rusher.