Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a person, usu. a troublemaker.

1850		Frontier Guardian 2 Oct. n.p.: Though Kister, that skeezecks, with Hall at his back Should come again thieving [DA].
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 26 Feb. n.p.: [signature to a letter] Yours, &c., Skeesicks.
1858		Wash. Eve. Star Nov. n.p.: ‘Oh! he be d—d!’ replied the fellow; ‘he’s the little skeezicks that told me to call for Long.’.
1870		B. Harte Luck of Roaring Camp (1873) 43: Thar ain’t nobody but him within ten mile of the shanty, and that’ar d—d oll skeesicks knows it.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 633: Skesicks, skeezicks, and a number of similar slang terms, apparently made at random as a mere expression of contempt, but, in reality, variations upon the Dutch word for vagabond, an idle, unprofitable person, is used very frequently to denote a good-for-nothing.
1892		Journal of Amer. Folklore V Sept. 236: Skeezicks [...] In my boyhood, in western New York, the word was applied to persons, usually children, who had been in mischief, and where the prank had caused sorrow to person or damage to property [DA].
1897		F.H. Carruth Voyage of the Rattletrap 131: No wonder old skeesicks went off to town soon as he got the money.
1901		Monroe & Northup ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:iii 147: skeezix, n. [...] a person dishonest in business; [...] of mischievous persons.
1905		J.C. Lincoln Partners of the Tide 75: Peleg was certain that the howling was an attempt at singing and boasted that ‘Skeezicks’ – that was the dog’s name – had an ear for music.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Voice of the City’ in Voice of the City (1915) 6: If you ever saw that little skeesicks of mine brace up in his high chair.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew Pt 8 🌐 Hello, old skeeziks. What’s wrong with you?
1914		G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 79: skeezucks, little, n. A mischievous child.
1924		H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 142: Once more tomorrow night this skeesicks can wave his little flag, but never again.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 145: Yu think that ol’ skeezicks really has struck it rich?
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 19: I never would ’a’ believed that ol’ skeesicks would give up liquor an’ do some honest work.
1975		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 154: Some skeezix from one of the local dailies was up here the other day.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 162: The kind of skeezix who talked little girls into coming to his ‘office’.