Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to steal; thus priggism, priggery, theft.

1561		implied in prigger of prancers under prigger n.1
1592		Greene Disputation Betweene a Hee and a Shee Conny-Catcher (1923) 27: Though you can foyst, nyp, prig, lift, courbe, and vse the blacke Art, yet you cannot crosbite without the helpe of a woman.
1607		Middleton Trick to Catch the Old One IIi iii: A pretty familiar, prigging rascal.
1612		Dekker Canting Song O per se O O1: This Doxie Dell, can cut bien whids, and wap well for a win And Prig and cloy so benshiply all the Deusea-vile within.
1617		J. Minsheu Ductor in Linguas n.p.: Prigge [...] to filch and steale.
c.1629		R. Brome City Wit IV i: Marry to [...] have her Jewells prig’d away, to bestow on a Court Mistress.
1669		W. Winstanley New Help To Discourse 132: Prigger of Prancers, are Horse-stealers, for to Prig in the Canting language signifies to steal; and Prancer signifies a Horse.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 196: [as cit. 1612].
1743		Fielding Life of Jonathan Wild (1784) I 109: An undeniable testimony of the great antiquity of Priggism. [Ibid.] III 219: He said, he was sorry to see any of his gang guilty of a breach of honour; that without honour Priggery was at an end.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 16: We agreed to prig some Prads; that is, steal some Horses.
1781		G. Parker View of Society II 78: Lumpers [...] have been expelled from the society of their brethren for being unable to scamp, prig, or dive.
c.1800		Song No. 21 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: He prig’d a little curly rogue.
1801		G. Hangar Life, Adventures and Opinions II 60: Those necessary professional accomplishments, such as [...] how to scamp, prigg, floor, [...] mount, lumber, and fence.
c.1815		J. Pitts in Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) i: All the boys and girls around / Who go out prigging rags and phials.
1820		‘Peter Corcoran’ ‘King Tims the First’ Fancy 44: I saw him hurry quicker, / Across the room, having first prigg’d the liquor.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) II 160: When you have prigged the chink, fling her in the river.
1833		‘Covey Of The Mill’ Regular Thing, and No Mistake 64: He’s gone to Brixton Mill for the prigging he has done.
1835		Sydney Herald 18 June 4/2: [Y]ou may insinivate that prigging spoons and other swag is making all things equal.
1837		A. Greene Glance at N.Y. I v: His watch ain’t worth lifting [...] you must prig his wipe.
1837		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 2 Dec. 40: I’ve caught von of these here grub-prigging rascals at last.
1841		Sydney Herald 26 Oct. 2/4: Some of these vulgar slang words are as old as the time of Beaumont and Fletcher [...] to prig, for to "steal"; duds for ‘clothes;’ and cove, for ‘fellow’.
1842		Egan ‘Bould Yeoman’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 137: And I’ll give you some gravy, / Of that I’ll take my davy, / If you try to prig my gold.
1846		Thackeray Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche in Works III (1898) 388: Catchin me priggin some cold tuttle soop, of which I’m remarkable fond.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 171: Some cove must have gone and prigged him, for he ain’t here.
1854		Bell’s Life in Sydney 17 June 3/1: It was believed by the Bench that he had assuredly prigged them.
1854		Solon Robinson Hot Corn: Life Scenes in N.Y. Illus. 20: I don’t see how you can get sich [clothes], ’less you prig ’em.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 July 76/1: A glove that I prigged / About five years ago,.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 61: Yonder spangled waterfall decks the neck of ‘Prigging Nance’.
1868		‘A Conversation on the Coming Elections’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 80: I know what your wish is, to prig my loaves and fishes.
1870		Melbourne Punch 3 Mar. n.p.: Prisoner.– ‘Twelve months for prigging a shirt! If it had been a collar they’d a hung me!’.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 42: [A]nd, ere that the British could twig it, / To hoist the French drapeau upon it, and prig it.
1878		‘’Arry on Himself’ Punch 21 Dec. in P. Marks (2006) 6: That the nobs prig their patter from ours you may see by their plays and their books.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Mar. 3/1: Armed with your spleen, your cant and bitter gall / And music phrases, prigged from Bozenthal.
1880		R. Rowe Picked Up in the Streets 226: The poor young warmint tried to prig your wipe.
1882		A. Trumble Crooked Life in Nat. Police Gaz. 10 June 6/2: [T]he height of their ambition is to ‘prig’ the table service and other pantry paraphernalia.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 146: She [...] examined the handkerchief very carefully. ‘It’s a rare good new one, it will pop for half-a-crown where I am known, where did you prig it?’.
1893		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 10 Mar. 4/2: ‘I want no hubble-bubbling too close to my abode / No whiskey-shrab purloining, no shirtprigging à la mode.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 5 Aug. 5/6: We find the pris’ner guilty, judge, / Of prigging that there cape he ‘found’.
1898		E. Pugh Tony Drum 69: ‘See nobody don’t prig any o’ that tripe, Baby,’ said the butcher.
1900		Boys Of The Empire 23 Oct. 34: The boys used to prig all the fruit.
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 28 Nov. 1/5: One lucky gutter snipe once obtained a sample of this fruit [...] by prigging it.
1904		Kipling ‘Comprehension of Private Copper’ Traffics and Discoveries 169: But what I dis-liked was this baccy-priggin’ beggar [...] comin’ the squire over me.
1910		Truth (Perth) 1 Oct. 4/7: When they talk about ‘the old / Pot-an’-pan,’ / You will tumble that they mean / The ‘old man,’ / Who’s perhaps a ‘bonser bloke,’ / Who can nimbly ‘prig a poke’ / Or ‘can stand in any joke’ / You may plan.
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 203: He’d heard other boys boast of prigging things.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 200: Either the horses have gnashed their leading strings and bolted, or some mace coves have prigged the prads.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 8: Stealing or appropriating [...] prig.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1997		Share Slanguage.

2. to cheat, to swindle, to haggle.

1765		S. Rutherford Letters (1863) 56: The frank buyer – cometh near to what the seller seeketh, useth at last to refer the difference to his will, and so cutteth off the course of mutual prigging .
1787		Burns Briggs of Ayr in Works (1842) 50: Men wha grew wise priggin’ owre hops an’ raisins.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 194: In Scotland the term prig is used in a different sense [...] ‘to prig a salmon,’ would be to cheapen it, or to seek for an abatement in the price.
1997		Share Slanguage.