Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a participant.

[1680		‘On Several Women about Town’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 33: This feast was made for a lady of air, / Who from the dunghill was raised to a player, / And at last had the luck to bring Flatfoot an heir].
1890		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Rejected’ Sporting Times 29 Mar. 1/3: When Lincoln races started, with a quid or two he parted, / And resolved that in the game he’d be a player.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 217: As long as the counterfeit lasts there is [...] the chance of being a ‘player’ in a job.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 284: He stared around his house of horror at all the players.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 114: Player – a member of a team of confidence tricksters.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 98: Every main player in the Australian underworld has to have some form of a relationship with certain key people within the police forces.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 288: Describe all the players to me. I don’t want to shoot the wrong guy.
2000		P. Earley Super Casino 250: [of a casino employee who also gambled] At age fifty, he was considered by many the best [shift boss], in part because he was a ‘player,’ and that made him different.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 118: ‘I want to talk to the players, guys he’d have known’.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 148: She knows the players, though. She named the guy who gave Barron the lethal injection.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘He knows the players in the sex trade’.

2. (orig. US black) anyone who uses intelligence, wit, brains to gain objectives, whether a businessman, politician, womanizer or criminal; also attrib.; as a term of address (see cite 2009).

1945		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 3 Mar. 14A: The Heatwave [club] [...] known from coast to coast as the home of the super players, what with Cadillacs, Lincolns, Packards, etc. lined up on both sides of the avenue.
1954		‘“Hipster” Rev. Dict.’ Mad mag. Oct. 20: popular fellow – player.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 112: The streeters really admired father Divine and called him a Master Player; he had, they said, a heavy game.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 10: Whatever I did, Duke, you can bet I did it like a player.
1988		Ice-T ‘High Rollers’ 🎵 Cash flow extreme, dress code supreme, vocabulary obscene / Definition – Street Player, you know what I mean?
1992		V. Headley Yardie 26: All the ravers, hustlers and players, all the regulars of [...] the night scene.
2000		Guardian Guide 29 Jan.–4 Feb. 52: Another idiot boasts about his make-out routine (‘I had this whole player thing ... Put some Roberta Flack on, get a candle out ... I liked to make it special’).
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 142/2: players n pl. l a group of powerful, influential inmates in a prison or prison wing who manage the affairs of the inmate group 2 a group of people all in the same game, related to the same scene, e.g. drug dealing.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] They reckon they‘re headin for the big time, they’re gonna be players.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 89: A story about a wannabe player he had taken to the Tyson-McBride fight.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 187: Where’s that at, playah?
2012		Too $hort ‘Hog Ridin’ 🎵 I do this shit for real, I ain’t fakin it, player.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 169: ‘Beautiful name, Misha. Suits.’ ‘Aren’t you the old player’.
2018		G. Disher Kill Shot [ebook] The wife and the lawyer were definitely players.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 134: A see Big kenzie [...] winkin [...] ‘Wee Azzy the playaaa!’.
2020		D. Winslow ‘The San Diego Zoo’ in Broken 123: Either he’s a major player (he’s good-looking enough to qualify), or he’s divorced.

3. (orig. US black) a pimp.

a.1962		‘Duriella du Fontaine’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 46: We were players, it’s true, with ribbons of blue, / But clean as the board of health.
1972		Hall & Adelman Gentleman of Leisure 39: It’s even more important for a player. His women encounter all kinds of men and for them to have one man, he must be dominant and make her strong.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 43: One wiry kid in jeans with long yellow hair, and a tall, lean player in a custom-made shirt.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 233: High-powered call girls and their pimps, although they took umbrage at the term ‘pimp’. They called themselves ‘players’.
2011		Observer 19 June 11/3: Once you became a pimp or a player that was the appropriate language to call a woman.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 8: [H]was just a young player who wanted to become a legendary pimp.
2014		R.J. Martin ‘Pimp Game ’76’ in ThugLit Jan. [ebook] Tony became a player [...] and became an ‘elevated’ pimp.

4. (US campus) a promiscuous person; a sexual cheat.

1964		R.D. Abrahams Deep Down in the Jungle 192: ‘Now all you no-good, you midnight ramblers, alcoholics, late players, out-stayers, wife-beaters, children deserters, get over on the other side of the room’.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 211: player, n. – [...] a lady’s man.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 250: player […] 3. Male who has a number of relationships with females going at the same time.
1992		S.L. Hills Tragic Magic 151: And being the player that I am, I picked up certain vibes. But she’s married.
2002		Teen Lingo: The Source for Youth Ministry 🌐 player (pronounced ‘playa’) Someone, usually, but not always, a male, who ‘dates’ a lot of the opposite sex at the same time. Or someone who has a different girlfriend or boyfriend every week or so.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 98: I’ll b a player all ma life. Get off wid as many fit gyals as I want.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Ten minutes after we hooked up she was giving birth. I’m not that much of a player.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] ‘You mean was he faithful? No, he wasn’t. He was a player’.

5. (N.Z.) a woman, occas. a man, who is seen as enthusiastic about sex [SE play or play around under play v.].

1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 119: I’m a player, you know, Netta and a damn good one too.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game 48: His mind began to dwell on another player at the College, a Fourth Former named Cheryl.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 85/1: player person, usually female, prepared to play at sex; c.1950; eg ‘I reckon that one in the corner would be a player. Want to find out?’.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 287: [of a lesbian] So you say she’s a player right . . . So if you stay with her you’re going to suffer.

6. (US drugs) a drug user.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 24: Sherry might not be a worry; she was a drinker more than anything, but the other three were hardened players who wouldn’t hesitate to move on him.

7. (N.Z. prison) a female inmate who has one permanent sexual partner but will perform sexual favours in return for various luxuries from the prison shop or canteen.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 142/2: player n. = canteen doll.

8. (US drugs) a drug dealer.

2004		(con. 1994) J.A. Juarez Brotherhood of Corruption 183: Dill spotted some players on the corner near Lavergne and Madison, watched ‘em make some deals, and wanted to give them a try’ .
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 6: Not a player nor a customer - maybe a neighbor.

9. (US) an ostensibly respectable individual, e.g. a lawyer, who accepts bribes.

2017

D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Michaels is a player. Most ADAs—assistant district attorneys—aren’t, but enough are.