Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a swindler, a bribe-taker, thus v. burgle, to take bribes.

1887

189019001910192019301940195019601970

1960

1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Oct. 7/4: Three sweet burglars in Melbourne are in a tight place. The old story. Too fond of the Jimmies.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Nov. 4/7: A pea comes up [...] an’ arsts me for the fair-dinkum chat. ‘E’es a real burglar an’ I warns ’im orf the course.
1913		D. Runyon ‘Mexican Love Song’ 5 Nov. [synd. col.] I love to [...] dream of pleasant scenes / Like pottin’ burglin’ jockeys from the stands.
1917		Van Loan ‘Sanguinary Jeremiah’ in Old Man Curry 131: A day when all the burglars at the track will be levelling for the get-away money.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

2. a sodomite [euph. for SE bugger and implication of ‘breaking in’].

1927

1930194019501960197019801990

1993

1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 441: Burglar, An active pederast.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 43: Burglar. – An active pederast.
1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 65: G explains burglar as a corruption of bugger (in its primary sense ‘someone who engages in active as opposed to passive anal intercourse’).

3. a security prison officer.

1986

19901995

2000

1986		J. Campbell Gate Fever 110: That evening the burglars spun Gilbert’s cell.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 32: Burglar Brigade – officers in prison who inspect the anus of a prisoner for concealed drugs.
2000		Guardian Rev. 31 Mar. 9: The three prison officers from security (also responsible for cell searches and affectionately known as ‘burglars’) marched him out.