Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a wallet or pocket-book.

1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 20: A Reader, alias Pocket-Book.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxix: A Reader A Pocket-book.
1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 136: I was wipe-priging, we made a regular stall for a tick and reader, but the cull was up to us, and we couldn’t do him.
1795		Sporting Mag. July VI 205/1: These gentlemen pickpockets [...] are very frequently attended by their girls, who are equally expert at the nabbing of a Tatler or a Reader.
1801		G. Hangar Life, Adventures and Opinions II 60: Various impositions, practised daily on the unwary [...] such as making a stall for a reader .
1812		Vaux Memoirs in McLachlan (1964) 80: He added that he had that day turned out three readers, but without finding a shilling in either of them.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 23: Skilful old pickpockets, who knew all the rigs of prigging a reader or fogle.
1834		‘The Mill’ Museum of Mirth 45/2: The prigs have been dipping their mauleys into that swell’s gropus nimmed [...] his gold ticker, three one-pound screens, two neds and his reader.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 58: If I can’t pinch a skin or reader, I can fam a cly for a chance.
1852		Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: Tom Wood was a cracksman [...] Good at grabbing a reader.
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 38: I buzzed a bloak and a shakester of a reader and a skin.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 317/2: reader, portefeuille.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/1: Jack buzzed a bloak and a shickster of a reader and a skin. / Jack picked the pockets of a gentleman and a lady of a pocket-book and a purse.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 65: Reader, a pocket-book.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘The Humming Bird’ in Sandburrs 25: If he’s nippin’ leathers, nine out of ten of ’em’s bound to be readers – no long green in ’em at all.
1906		D. Stewart Vultures of the City in Illus. Police News 29 Dec. 14/3: ‘A reader (pocket-book) full of flimsies’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. (UK Und.) a book.

1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) A Reader a Book.
1786		Whole Art of Thieving [as cit. 1753].
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 8 May 116/3: [H]is reader respecting the nob work at Doncaster Meeting had often proved an interesting subject to him.

3. (also luminous reader) a marked card; thus (gambling) readers, a crooked deck of cards that a cheat can read from the backs.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl.
1915		Drew & Evans Grafter (1922) 32: I can mark a pack of ‘readers’ with the next man — readers good enough to pass muster in a game of poker with ordinary players.
1919		Mirror (Sydney) 31 Aug. 8/3: Poker players have their ‘strippers,’ where the sides of the cards are faked in such a way that the dealer knows what cards he is dealing to other players. ‘Mockers’ or ‘readers’ are another variation of the game which brings grist to the sharper’s mill.
1920		N.Y. Tribune 9 May 7/1: One of the players [...] alleges that Krohnberg ‘rang in’ marked cards, known as ‘readers’.
1938		(con. 1820s+) H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 13: [There were] a flood of prepared cards. [...] readers [were] marked on the backs.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Baseball Hattie’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 647: They catch him with a deck of readers in a poker game.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 175/2: Readers. Cleverly marked playing cards, often requiring the use of a colored eye-shade or tinted eyeglasses to be read.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 192: Max described the luminous reader deck we wanted.
1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling 684: Luminous readers – marked cards that can be read only through tinted glasses.
1963		A.S. Fleischman Venetian Blonde (2006) 154: I have played against sleeve holdouts and readers and daub and shiners.

4. (US Und.) a permit, e.g. to beg, to street-sell.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl.
1942		R. Mulvey ‘Pitchman’s Cant’ in AS XVII:1 Pt 2 Apr. 92/2: reader. License. ‘I am back in Chicago with the strongest reader covering the Loop.’.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Reader — A license to do business. Also, a phony driver's license .

5. a newspaper.

1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 9: Reader: Newspaper.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 120: He noticed that she had a morning paper under her arm. ‘Good gel,’ he said. ‘Thinking of getting a reader’.
1994		(con. 1930s) K.C. Kearns Dublin Tenement Life 203: In them years they called the paper a ‘reader’. So you’d say you were going out to sell your readers. They were only a penny each at the time.

6. (US Und.) a small-time thief who follows postmen or delivery men to their destination, having sneaked a look at the label, then claims to be the official recipient.

1933

C.W. Willemse Cop Remembers 289: Readers (persons who read the addresses on a package to be delivered and await the delivery boy, sign for the package and accept it at the address given).

7. (US Und.) a warrant for arrest.

1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 85: ‘[T]here’s a business bloke wit an office next door that's got out a reader fer the kid, an every Central office Hawkshaw in town is on his trail’.
1918		Jackson Dly News (MS) 1 Apr. 7/1: Crook Chatter [...] ‘There are a bunch of “readers” out for you [...] aren’t there?’.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 156: Reader. –A warrant of arrest.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 105: The guy’s lammed. We got him on the teletype and they got readers out.
1948		R.L. Bellem ‘Death Ends the Scene’ Hollywood Detective May 🌐 It would take him practically no time at all to put out a short-wave reader on me.
1950		see sense 7.
1966		C. Himes Run Man Run (1969) 184: Better put a reader out for Walker . . . No, for the automat murder.

8. (UK Und.) a ‘wanted’ poster.

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 156: Reader. – [...] A sign, advertisement, poster or announcement.
1940		S. Longstreet Decade 317: The readers are up with his pan in every crossroad post office.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 175/2: Reader. 1. A printed ‘wanted’ circular, bearing the picture, fingerprints and record of the fugitive. 2. A warrant for one’s arrest.

9. (drugs) a drug prescription; thus reader with a tail, an illegally issued prescription which had been traced by narcotics agents.

1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 125/2: reader. A physician’s prescription for narcotics.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in AS XIII:3 108/1: reader with a tail. Var. of reader. A prescription for narcotics, probably illegally issued, which is being traced by narcotic agents.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 157: Reader – A legitimate prescription for medicinal narcotics. Reader with a tail – A legitimate prescription for a preparation containing a narcotic.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 219: reader [...] Prescription for narcotics, usually obtained from a doctor illicitly by an addict.
1979		J. Homer Jargon.

10. (UK prison) any form of reading matter, books, magazines, comics etc.

1950

in P. Tempest Lag’s Lex.

11. a pornographic novel, without pictures.

1997

(con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 70: ‘Readers’ are books. As magazines are invariably called ‘books’ by the semi-illiterates who manage and frequent the shops another term had to be conjured up for actual books.