Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a beggar, esp. one who passes on information of potential robberies to professional thieves.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1718		C. Hitchin Regulator 20: Cruser, alias Beggar.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1741		Canting Academy, or the Pedlar’s-French Dict. 114: Beggars Cruisers.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxviii: A Cruiser A Beggar.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cruisers, beggars, or highway spies, who traverse the road, to give intelligence of a booty; also rogues ready to snap up any booty that may offer, like privateers or pirates on a cruise.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1833		‘Death of the Pugilistic Club’ in Out-and-Outer in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 137: By one cross they’re [i.e. Jews] losers, and therefore are cruizers / All over the world and are out of repute.

2. (UK/US Und.) ‘a man who “cruises around” in search of victims and plunder’ (Thornton, An American Glossary, 1912).

1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1842		Spirit of the Times (Phila.) n.p.: One of the prisoners was recognized as an old thief, the other as a Shippen point cruiser.

3. (also cruizer, heavy cruiser) a prostitute.

1699		Farquhar Love and a Bottle IV ii: Enter a Masque crossing the Stage. Ha! there’s a stately Cruiser; I must give her one chase.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 35: The French cruizers stationed on the coast of St. James, Regent-street, and the neighbouring shores. These Femmes de Francois have given a foreign cast to the entertainments, customs and grubbery department.
1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Feb. 3/3: Jack fell in with a friendly cruiser, who having noticed him [...] in Doyne's arbour.
1861		Bell’s Life in Sydney 1June 3/2: Jack [Tar], to his intense delight, fell in with a fleet of Crinoline cruizers.
1868		Detective’s Manual and Officer’s Guide 148: On nearing the cruiser, he hailed her thus.
1869		G. Ellington Women of N.Y. 298: They differ from other classes in being what is called ‘street-walkers,’ or ‘cruisers’.
1903		H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 34: Every woman had to possess a fine silk handkerchief; even the Bowery ‘cruisers’ (street-walkers) carried them.
1910		H. Hapgood Types from City Streets 139: There are [...] two metropolitan classes of these miserable beings – the Tenderloin Girl and the Bowery ‘Cruiser’.
1931		(con. 1910s) C.W. Willemse Behind The Green Lights 151: You know damned well I wouldn’t go down to Jefferson Market and beg off for a cruiser if I didn’t have an object in view.
1952		‘I was a Pickpocket’ in C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 75: Every woman had to possess a fine silk handkerchief; even the Bowery ‘cruisers’ carried them.
1958		C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 54: I don’t mean no cruisers, neither. I means church people and Christians.
1972		R.A. Wilson Playboy’s Book of Forbidden Words 137: The lowest class of prostitutes [...] are known as heavy cruisers, town bikes or simply tanks.
1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 168: Hew was finishing up a fight with another heavy cruiser he got from some place.

4. (Aus.) a tramp, a vagrant.

1903

Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Sept. 17/2: The Political Battlers’ League had selected me to contest Parliament in the interest of sundowners, whalers and cruisers.

5. (US) a police patrol car.

[1882		A. Trumble Mysteries of N.Y. 16: [of a cab] A stray cruiser prowls Broadway].
1929		Sat. Eve. Post 7 Dec. 68/2: The cruisers are high-powered seven-passenger touring cars manned by a crew of four [DA].
1933		C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 167: All of a sudden four policemen drove up in a cruiser.
1942		R. Chandler High Window 112: ‘Suppose I don’t check with him?’ [...] ‘A couple of cruisers would start looking for you.’.
1950		Kerouac letter 6 Oct. in Charters I (1995) 231: There’s two cruisers criss-crossing slowly in front of the field.
1968		J. Hersey Algiers Motel Incident 139: Only the best police officers make the cruisers [...] The cruiser, that’s the heavy car.
1972		D. Morrell First Blood 10: As he got into the cruiser, he set his bag between himself and the policeman.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 79: I drive past the joint and there is Billy’s cruiser.
1994		M. Montague Dread Culture 98: He watched helplessly as they led Tuffy and two others outside to a cruiser. [...] He went back to the kitchen cursing Babylon.
2003		G. Pelecanos Soul Circus 310: The overheads of cruisers flashed the crime scene and threw colored light upon the faces of Strange and Quinn.
2009		P. Temple Truth 245: You could drive home drunk, needed to ram a cruiser to be blood-tested.

6. one who wanders the streets in search of a casual pick-up (usu. a male homosexual but not always, see cits. 1968, 1972).

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 62: cruiser [...] a homosexual who looks for patrons.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 423: Thats where all the cruisers hang out.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 9: cruising (n.): General term for this type of streetwalking or searching [i.e. for sex] is widely used. One who is involved in such is a cruiser.
1968		H. Ellison ‘The Hippie-Slayer’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 104: [of heterosexuals] Others were cruisers, they just hawked the Strip, trying to make all the young meat.
1972		C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 410: The cruisers were around. Guys with cars [who would] whisk our fine and helpless ladies away from us.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 27: Being the cruiser more than the cruised.
1983		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 2: cruiser – a foppish male who fancies himself as a Casanova and who cruises or glides about in search of female companionship.
1991		D. Widgery Some Lives! 6: In its Turkish baths steam a sometimes uneasy mixture of boxers, market traders and gay cruisers.
2001		Guardian 27 Jan. 22: Tom Driberg — a cruiser of ocean-going capacity.