Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. one who has sexual intercourse; cit. 1607 deliberately plays on a Dutch mispronunciation.

1598		Florio Worlde of Wordes n.p.: Fottitore, a iaper, a sarder, a swiver, a fucker, an occupier.
1607		Dekker & Webster Northward Hoe II i: Min vader bin de grotest fooker in all Ausbrough.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 196: [of a prostitute] I had till then never known what a high-class, well-practised professional fucker could do.
1893		‘Bob Sterling’ Town-Bull 78: ‘Oh my dear lover, dear fucker, your whore is happy to her finger tips’.
1898		Forbidden Fruit 58: I never had such a fucker as you, and you taught me and Gert all we know in the Art of Love.
c.1900		‘Ramrod’ Nocturnal Meeting 5: These damsels were all plain, not fancy fuckers [...] perfectly satisfied with a straightforward hump.
1909		Joyce letter 9 Dec. to Nora Barnacle in Ellman Sel. Letters (1975) 186: My little naked fucker, my naughty wriggling little frigger, my sweet dirty little farter.
c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 101: Being great fuckers [...] they filled all the unpaved river streets with black babies.
1941		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 29: There was a young girl of Cah’lina, / Had a very capricious vagina: / To the shock of the fucker / ’Twould suddenly pucker, / And whistle the chorus of ‘Dinah’.
1950		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 139: These fragments of a song he heard about 1890 [...] ‘I says to her. I’m a fucker by trade, / Just back from the Chicksaw Nation. / I pushed her up against the wall, / My right leg I throwed over’.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 84: I don’t dig faggot fuckers.
1976		J. Heller Good As Gold (1979) 420: All you have to be is a fucker.
1987		‘Victoria Parker’ Pay for Play Cheerleaders 🌐 She snapped off a picture [...] finishing the roll of film with several wide-angle shots of the loving fuckers.
1988		A. Hollinghurst Swimming-Pool Library (1998) 173: Yeah! Fuckin’ nigger-fucker.
1991		B. Stewart Broken Arse II ii: It’s about Henry Bligh, I think—and it says he’s been a boy-fucker.
1998		‘Bill E. Goodhead’ Nubile Treat 🌐 The happy young fuckers sat beneath the trees, bare-assed, and passed the last beer can around.
2000		Desdemona at www.asstr.org 🌐 Baxter wasn’t a fucker – he was a talker.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 348: [H]er illustrious career as fucker and fuckee.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 275: The filthy tonks are currently embroiled in un grand sexual spectacle [...] these are insatiable fuckers.

2. a pimp.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 433/1: C.19–20.

3. (also facker, fecker, fugher) a general term of abuse, e.g. You stupid fucker!

c.1820?		Bugger’s Alphabet in Bold (1979) 42: F the poor fucker who has no balls at all.
c.1864		parody in Rakish Rhymer (1917) 122: These dam shyster f—kers, war widows and sly lovers, / Is agoing to run my business in the ground.
1865		in T.P. Lowry Stories the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell (1994) 35: My tent fellow is a Copperhead [...] If you are one of them niger fuggers, let me know, but I hope you are a loyal Democrat.
1897		Proc.Old Bailey 26 July 740: I saw Pinchion knock a man off a bicycle—he said, ‘None of these f——s will stick; I am the f——to stick’ [...] Pinchion came across to me, and said, ‘Do you know this f—? He sticks. I am the boy to stick’.
1909		G.R. Bacchus Pleasure Bound ‘Ashore’ 10: ‘His name was John Tucker, / The bugger, the fucker’.
1916		Wipers Times 20 Mar. (2006) 44/2: Fokker. The name given by all infantry officers and men to any aeroplane that flies at a great height.
1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 44: ‘Old soldier, old cunt,’ quoted Parrott [...] ‘Ah,’ flung back Tug malevolently, ‘young soldier, fly fucker. That’s me.’.
1933		R. Chandler ‘Blackmailers Don’t Shoot’ Red Wind (1946) 116: I could have killed the — four times!
1945		Mess Songs and Rhymes of the RAAF 1939-1945 5b: Along came a fucking rainstorm and washed the fucker out .
1946		K. Amis letter 19 June in Leader (2000) 73: The man I may have told you ab8 – the religious fucker – keeps coming round.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 155: At least [...] if we got to stay here a couple of days, the fuggers won’t be stinkin’ up the joint.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 169: I’d ’ave saluted the fugher.
1959		P. Larkin letter 2 Feb. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 299: A stupid fucker here showed me a 500 worder he’d done for some new 6th-form mag.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 12: ‘You’ve had it, matey. And like the stupid fucker you are, you don’t care’.
1962		H.S. Thompson letter 16 Feb. in Proud Highway (1997) 321: Joyce was a poor sick fucker who probably died with his balls somewhere up around his navel.
1973		Tharunka (Sydney) 8 Nov. 27/1: D.T. ‘Smackhead’ Pilgrim poured another schooner glass of Mascot International Terminal watered down slops all over his wrist and flies as he groped for the telephoto lens: ‘there’s the little fucker coming now’.
1977		(con. 1940s) O. Manning Danger Tree 87: If you ask me, sir, the old fucker’s lost his notes.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 78: You’ll laugh on the other side of yer bake some of these days, Francie Fallis [...] you an’ that fat fugger O’Lig.
1980		L.A. Murray Boys who Stole the Funeral 55: I’ve found you you fucker I came all this way to find you you smashed my sisters down with a gaspipe.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 40: That filthy little fat fucker that never bought a goddamned beer for anybody in his whole life, calling me a son of a bitch.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] ‘Stupid fucker reckoned he’d be able to take you’.
1995		A. Higgins Donkey’s Years 68: Frig the fecker!
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 38: ‘Come on, you little fucker’.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 13: ‘Fackers!’ he grunted, straightening his bollocks in the skin tight leathers.
2006		Age (Melbourne) 6 Jan. 🌐 Dodger was one hooked-nose, hollow-gutted, flappy-eared, ugly f---er.
2006		C.W. Ford Deuce’s Wild 142: These same fuckers hate Jews and are trying to eliminate us from the face of the earth.
2009		T. Black Gutted 128: J.J., smart little fecker that he is, has relinquished the case.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] He’s rung me a couple of times [...] Maybe I should find the fucker.
2011		T. Pluck ‘Van Candy’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 288: ‘You fugger! You gonna die!’.
2012		J. Madeleine ‘How We Come Undone’ in C. Rhatigan and N. Bird (eds) Pulp Ink 2 [ebook] Maybe those fuckers at the crack house had sold her some shit and just robbed her.
2012		L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] ‘You fucker!’ she said. She was so furious it amazed her.
2012		R. Milward Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 72: ‘I need my fecking printing, you fecking grandmother fecker’.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] ‘Slimy fucker. Got that big snake tattoo around his arm’.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 136: ‘Harsh fecker, isn’t He? [i.e. Christ].
2019		A. Parks February’s Son n.p.: He stands back up, calls it [i.e. a victim of torture] a fucker again, spits at it.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 50: ‘This fucker’s my meal ticket’.
2021		P. Howard Braywatch 17: It’d nearly be worth chinning the focker.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 35: ‘Well you couldn’t make that fecker up’.
2021		A. Parks April Dead 171: ‘Old fucker thought he was still the big man’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 119: [T]he fucker moved on to fresh challenges.

4. (Aus.) an English private soldier [suggests the aping of northern UK accents by Australians and the sterotyping of the frequency of the word’s use].

1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 24: fooker (n.) — An English private.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: fooker. An English Private.

5. a vagina.

1927–41

in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 3: There was a young fellow named Charteris / Put his hand where his young lady’s garter is. / Said she, ‘I don’t mind, / And up higher you’ll find / The place where my fucker and farter is.’.

6. a man, a fellow, with no particular abuse intended and even some degree of affection.

1927		‘Rangy Lil’ in Bold (1979) 191: Till over the hill from Dragarse Creek / Came a short-shit fucker called One-ball Pete.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 208: They let a bloody twat like ’im off; but if any o’ us poor fuckers did it, we’d be for th’ electric chair, we would.
1941		‘A Note On Drumming And Bugling’ in M. Page Kiss Me Goodnight, Sgt.-Major (1973) 57: He’ll never go sick no more. / The poor fucker is dead.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 58: It struck me so hard how absolutely lonely the poor f—cker was.
1965		H.S. Thompson letter 9 June in Proud Highway (1997) 523: If the fuckers could say what they really mean [...] they might be able to shake some people.
1976		A. Salkey Come Home, Malcolm Heartland 153: You’re a tough fucker, man!
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 13: My brother Terry was a brave little fucker and would fight well.
1993		A. Bleasdale On the Ledge 35: We’ll buy trilbys – any fucker can look good in a trilby.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] [T]rying to think up some excuse for collecting the fucker’s tea for him.
2000		Hip-Hop Connection Jan./Feb. 22: It’s not just for curry addicts and mad old fuckers like our ed.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] I’m not scared of the dead [...] Make better company than a lot of live fuckers.
2009		J. Joso Soothing Music for Stray Cats 67: Therapists ain’t gonna tell it like it is, lets face it, the fuckers would be well out of a job if they did.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 75: Woe betide any poor fucker who attacks any of them.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] ‘But Tommaso’s got his own muscle now. Brings the fuckers in from Calabria’.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 17: I thought [Edward] Albee was a kinky fucker.
2019		A. Killilea Boyo-wulf at https://boyowulf.home.blog 13 May 🌐 Out of everyone, he was the mightiest of ’em, pure strong fucker like.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 4: There’s Sin and Atonement, fuckers — there’s nothing else.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 161: [T]hey were bould little feckers and that she genuinely couldn’t help forgiving them.

7. (also fecker, fogger) an unspecified object, irrespective of its qualities; an animal.

1945		J. Maclaren-Ross Swag, the Spy and the Soldier in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 26 43: The fogging jemmy. Couldn’t think where I’d left the fogger at first.
1945		in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 155: ‘How in hell do they expect us to fight with these goddam things [i.e. backpacks] on?’ [...] ‘I don’t think I could walk a mile with this fucker on.’.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 7: Let’s stop shuffling the fuggers and start playing.
1951		‘W. Williams’ Enemy 149: Oh, those foggers. Those mother-loving foggers [OED].
1958		T. Berger Crazy in Berlin 186: You can put the fucker aside for fifteen minutes and write me a letter to the wife.
1977		H. Crews Feast of Snakes 74: ‘White slippers.’ ‘Little pointy fuckers,’ said Willard.
1984		W. Murray Tip on a Dead Crab 174: [of a horse] That fucker’s going to win the race.
1984		(con. WW2) T. Jones Heart of Oak [ebook] [We] caught our first glimpse of the Ganges mast. ‘They make you climb up that fucker’.
1987		(con. 1967) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 119: Then Fritsche sorted the cans [...] You got ham and eggs. Throw those fuckers away.
1991		R. Doyle Van (1998) 408: They’d had their turkey as well, same as always; a grand big fucker.
1999		(con. 1919) R. Doyle A Star Called Henry (2000) 222: There’s a fecker in there I don’t know. – It’s a storm-cock; there he goes.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 199: That’s a castle. Now unless this town has two of the fuckers [...] we’ve just gone in a great big circle.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] One little fucker [i.e. a bullet] bounces around inside Vic, comes out behind his collarbone.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 8: My mother purchased a red-and-white sedan from him. The plan: drive the fucker back to L.A.
2011		S. Kelman Pigeon English 100: [of a bottle] Just smash the f—er, man.
2012		T. Piccirilli Last Kind Words 227: [of a mobile phone] [M]aybe I should set the fucker on vibrate.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 140: Fucker must have been three feet long.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 76: [of a puppy] It was as though in teaching the little fucker to fetch, he would have been corrupting him.

8. a difficult or irritating thing or task.

1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 100: I just hope...that this fucker breaks one way or the other.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 118: It’s a fucker realizing you’ve been doped and having to crawl into some lousy skipper in the middle of the day to sleep them off.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 109: Then it’s a bleeding great fucker too, nearly bust an arm walking home.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 124: ‘Fucking thing,’ said McCoy. Couldn’t get the key to turn in the lock of the big wooden cupboard. [...] ‘Fucking fucker’.

9. an extreme example, whether positive or negative.

1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 105: Please excuse my son, Ace, from missing school yesterday. He had one fucker of a headache.
1997		L. Davies Candy 156: I’ve had a fucker of an afternoon.
2012		J. Fagan Panopticon (2013) 131: Dylan punches Brian a fucker and his head flies back.

10. one who harms others.

1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 42: If they’re gonna give me my druthers, I’d druther be a fucker than a fuckee.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 698: Yeah, I know fuckers like him.
1992		E. St Aubyn ‘Bads News’ in Some Hope (1994) 283: The needle fever had a psychological life of its own. What better way to be at once the fucker and the fucked, the subject and the object.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 156: Warren Abrahams is a know-it-all, do-it-all behind-the-scenes fucker of anyone he come across.