Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a beggar, esp. one who lives by his wits; also attrib.

1884		Amer. Hebrew 6 Nov. 206/3: ANTI SHNORRING. (...) If again, it is to benefit the professional shnorrer, the less provision we make for him the better.
1890		‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day by Day’ in Sporting Times 8 Mar. 3/1: The pore little shnurrer shvallowed it.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 16 Jan. 1/6: As an exhibition of slang-whanging [it] stands a record. ‘Momsers,’ ‘snorers,’ ‘nofghas,’ ‘echo-rums,’ flew around like hot fat out of a fish frying-pan.
1906		Charities 17 Feb. 695/2: His wife doesn’t have to work, the ‘schnorrer’ game is going so well now [DA].
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 86: Sometime I see zem like zat in the Ghetto, poor schnorrers.
1929		S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 68: Weingrad ordered him to keep away from Hannah, calling him an unpedigreed schnorrer (beggar).
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl. §460.29: beggar, schnorrer, a Jewish mendicant who begs at the doors of synagogues or other Jewish places.
1945		A. Kober Parm Me 156: Will be evvey shnorreh fomm the family!
1951		(con. 1910s) S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 230: Scratch a schnorrer (beggar) and find a holy man.
1963		A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 10: Although I am a cadger [...] you will never find me with the unshaven face, the dirty collar or frayed cuffs of a schnorrer.
1979		G. Wolff Duke of Deception (1990) 42: He was a gonif, a schnorrer. He was just a bum.
1980		(con. 1920s–30s) Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 35: In the ’twenties and ’thirties every true Englishman in Stepney knew that [...] a ‘schnorrer’ was someone on the earhole.
2010		E. Oring Jokes and their Relations 102: We have explicit evidence that Freud viewed himself as something of a schnorrer.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 200: ‘Calm down, you schnorrers.’ The schnorrers calmed down.

2. a person, i.e. a beggar n.

1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 48: His uncle Laurie [...] give ’im a arf a couter for a Poorim box, ’nd the pore little schnurrer shvallowed it.
1914		M. Glass Abe and Mawruss 169: What the devil are you trying to sell a Schnorrer like that a good fiddle?

3. a cheat, a mean person; also attrib.

1951		S. Levenson Meet the Folks 126: a shnorrer The guy who insists you pay him the money you owe him.
1958		T. Berger Crazy in Berlin 201: Deserter, drunkard, schnorrer, leech.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 31: Those schnorrer bits.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 109: Go in there and buy a torch. Don’t be a schnorrer, spend a few quid.