Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also beachie) an idler.

1887		H. Caine Deemster I 227: You idiot waistrel, why d’ye stand prating there? I’ll pay you, you beachcomber.
1892		Ohinemuri Gaz. (Waikato) 27 Aug. 2/2: You whelp of an outcast beachcomber!
1915		Day Book (Chicago) 30 Oct. 20/1: He had been a worthless beach-comber while she had waited for him, believed in him.
1967		S. Hugill Sailortown 4: The sailor ‘on the beach’ automatically became a ‘beachcomber [...] a John who [...] would disappear among the dives of sailortown [and] hide until his ship sailed.
1967		S. Hugill Sailortown 5: Some ‘beachies’ were good seamen, men [...] activated by a sense of adventure [...] Other beachies were the scum of the earth.

2. (Can.) a white man living with an Inuit woman.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 58/1: ca. 1913; by 1960 slightly ob.

3. (US tramp) a tramp who frequents docks and waterfront areas.

1908		Clarke Courier (Berryville, VA) 18 Nov. 3/6: ‘Beach comber, lad? Why tht’s a fellow who hangs around a saloon ashore and never wants to work’.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 438: Beach comber, A sailor Tramp.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 24: Beachcomber.-A tramp or bum who hangs about water front saloons and the docks and begs food and drink from the sailors. Adopted from the correct use to indicate a tramp in the tropics, and used in its newer sense exclusively by the fraternity of the road.

4. (US Und.) a hanger-on among criminals, running errands and performing odd jobs.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 24/2: Beachcomber. (Rare through obsolescence) A hanger-on, or sycophant, among thieves; one who hesitates to steal but runs errands, minds weapons, and does other odd jobs for criminals, living on the crumbs from their tables.

5. (Aus.) one who walks the streets in the hope of picking up a woman; thus beach-combing, combing.

1955

‘No. 35’ Argot in G. Simes DAUS (1993).