Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Irish) a thug, a lout.

1797		H.H. Brackenridge Modern Chivalry (1937) Pt II Vol. IV Bk I 267: I am but a simple waiting man to a gentleman like yoursel, and I wad na take the office o’ gauger upon me. [Ibid.] 302: There is na doubt but they are coming in a mob, to make a seizure o’ the gauger.
1800		M. Edgeworth Castle Rackrent (1832) 88: The gauger, bad luck to him! was the man that next proposed to my master to try himself could he take at a draught the contents of the great horn.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 189: The gougers, and rip-roarious; the screamers who love tu rub one another down with their tooth-picks.
1840		T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 114: Regular built bruisers too; claw your eyes right out, like a Carolina gouger.
1843		Preston Chron. 12 Aug. 4/1: Avoid the way of Slick of Tennessee, [...] the fiercest gouger he. / He claws and spits, as there he sits / [...] / And in his hand, for deadly strife, a bowie-knife.
1859		Huddersfield Chron. 3 Dec. 3/6: Graduates from Sing Sing and Blackwell’s Island, shoulder hitters, gougers, maimers, thieves [etc.].
1861		in R.F. Burton City of the Saints 114: Of gougers fierce, the eyes that pierce, the fiercest gouger he.
1909		J. London ‘A Piece of Steak’ Complete Short Stories (1993) II 1630: When Tom King faced the Woolloomoolloo Gouger, twenty years before, he knew that the Gouger’s jaw was only four months healed.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 298: And then the old fellow starts blowing into his bagpipes and all the gougers shuffling their feet to the tune the old cow died of.
1936		A. Russell Gone Nomad 55: Many a gouger [...] was waylaid and robbed of his wad.
1945		(con. 1900s) S. O’Casey Drums Under the Windows 229: Yous gang o’ goughers! snarled the sergeant, I know yous of old.
1953		B. Behan Scarperer (1966) 109: I’m not going round with a lot of gougers the like of yous and ruin me chances.
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 59: He breaks off to turn to the little group of gougers, their heads stuck out trying to catch what’s being said.
1986		B. Geldof Is That It? 68: Gougers were cornerboys, gurriers, yobs, hooligans, streewise kids.
1989		H. Leonard Out after Dark 49: Jer Rooney was a proper gauger.
1994		(con. 1960s) G. Byrne Pictures in my Head 31: The cocksure hair-oiled boys in their gouger’s shoes.
1998		J. O’Connor Salesman 82: That’s one little gouger can’t stay away from mischief long. Next time his arse won’t touch the ground before he’s up in the Joy.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Gouger (As used by Dublin Gardaí) (n): a dangerous knacker/thief.

2. (also gouge) a swindler, a cheat.

c.1785		‘The Friar’s Jigg’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 425: One time you were a gauger and teasing each landlady / [...] / A smuggler bold next day, no gauger can you trepan.
1819		Quitman in Claiborne Life Quitman 42: I have joined a society, composed chiefly of young lawyers (here called ‘Gougers’) [DA].
1867		Birmingham Jrnl 12 Jan. 11/6: Long life to his Majesty, and the back of my hand and the sole of my foot to the blackguard gaugers who paid for hers.
1877		R. Burdette Rise and Fall of the Mustache 298: Billinger says he knew he would get the law on the old gouge if he held on long enough.
1896		Neihart Herald (MT) 18 Apr. 2/4: A tramp begs at houses [...] ’n thery’re all can gaugers; they get a can ’n sneak roun back doors of saloons ’n drink the drippin’s out of beer kegs.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. 12: Perceiving that the Race-Track was in the hands of Gougers, Uncle Brewster walked back to the Hotel .
1917		Nation 1 Oct. n.p.: The price boosters, the gougers who are making fortunes on war prices, are forcing the predicted famine [DA].
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 314: The big grafter nominates and elects governors and state legislators, who are sent to the state capital pledged to deal lightly with the profiteer, the gouger and the beneficiary of special privilege.
2007		T. Dorsey Hurricane Punch 119: Thirty minutes later a bound and gagged price gouger was crammed into the bottom of the insulated chest.