Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US Und.) one who is asleep and thus a potential victim of crime; in generic use, a fool.

1827		Commercial Advertiser (N.Y.) 24 July 2/5: There had been a gang of rogues, who went about in that vicinity to catch what they called snoozers — that is to say, to rob of their clothes, money, &c, such sailors as they found asleep on the steps of the boarding houses.
1843		N.Y. Daily Trib. 1 July 2/6: [headline] Stealing a Watch from a Snoozer.
1874		Manchester Eve. News 25 May 4/5: ‘Well! resurrection morning! [...] if I h’ain’t the first snoozer to rise.
1885		Manchester Courier 24 Jan. 9/5: By gravy, I saw a fellow [...] go into one of the biggest establishments there, and I’m a snoozer if he didn’t raise the whole house with two jacks.
1891		W. De Vere ‘A Black Hills Sermon’ Tramp Poems 23: They played the thing up to the limit, and took in each snoozer and bloke.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 87: I take careful aim and sling the bramble bang into the snoozer’s gub.

2. a thief who steals from the hotel or house in which they are staying.

1843		N.Y. Herald 10 Mar. 2/4: BOARDING HOUSE SNOOZERS. They [take] board, and when sufficiently acquainted with the premises then rob it during the night and decamp.
1856		H. Mayhew Great World of London I 46: ‘Snoozers,’ who sleep at railway hotels [...] make off with either apparel or luggage in the morning.
1861		H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 25: ‘Snoozers,’ or those who sleep at railway hotels, and decamp with some passenger’s luggage or property in the morning.
1871		Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 196: [sic] There is a big watch movement factory here and [...] I have beat it already for a little but Im waiting for some good pal to help me clean it out come on and well make a good haul. snoozer bill.
1881		‘Bill Nye’ Bill Nye and Boomerang 121: You’re a fine fair-haired snoozer from Bitter Creek; ain’t ye?
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 8: Snoozers - Men and women who sleep at hotels and boarding-houses and decamp with other people’s effects in the morning.
1891		A. Day Mysterious Beggar 333: Oh you old snoozer! [...] Wouldn’t I snuff out yer bloomin’ villainy!

3. (also snouzer) a person, a ‘chap’, a woman; often as old snoozer.

1824		W. Maginn ‘Commentary on Ritter Bann’ in Blackwood’s Mag. Apr. n.p.: ‘Ritter Bann. And where went Jane?’ ‘Old Snoozer. To a nunnery, sir.’.
1869		N.Y. Times 22 Aug. 8/4: [A man complains of having been robbed in a saloon; Reddy the Blacksmith interferes as he talks to a cop, and] desired to know what the ‘snoozer’ wanted.
1874		C. White Darkey’s Stratagem 8: cupid: Do you know you remind me of an old snoozer I used to work for? crun.: What! call me an old snoozer? cupid: No; I mean the other old snoozer.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Oct. 6/2: ‘Now, Neddie, you poody leedle snoozer, I be damt eef you don’t vos gife me a miss right avay’.
1887		Ft Worth Dly Gaz. (TX) 29 Aug. 6/3: It is not pleasant to be accosted by one’s five year old hopeful as ‘an old snoozer’.
1898		F. Dumont Dumont’s Joke Book 23: Some snoozer in the crowd hollered ‘Milk,’ and my horse stopped.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Foiled’ in Sandburrs 87: If that snoozer pitches this afternoon I hopes d’ boss’ll put in a cash-register!
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 Feb. 6/6: He’s a a shoddy bettin snoozer / Who’s a bit too blooming fly.
1909		‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny 202: You darned old snoozer.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 30: I didn’t need to look twice at that snoozer to see that no line of hot air I had in stock would soften him up.
1915		C.E.W. Bean Anzac Book 99: The chaps of the 16th Battalion / Are not easy snoozers to beat; / I’ve a notion (I says) that will lick them – / ’Arf a dollar I line them a treat!
1919		Tweed Dly (Murwillumbah, NSW) 17 May 7/4: And I’ve lost all faith in women, and I’m out upon the grout, / Since that snoozer with a dial like a meat-axe cut me out.
1929		K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 261: Oh, I suppose I’m a cantankerous old snoozer, Bob.
1932		‘William Hatfield’ Ginger Murdoch 218: Them coves uster send a snoozer on ahead of them to tell the world how good they was.
1935		Wash. Trib. (DC) 8 June 12/4: [B]ig dopes like me [...] just ignored the snouzer.
1946		K.S. Prichard Roaring Nineties 137: There was a snoozer, name of Winterbottom.
1955		F.B. Vickers Mirage (1958) 247: He hit this Gepp snoozer fair in the moosh.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 59: Dead shrewd, this snoozer.

4. (UK und.) a thief who specialises in robbing sleeping railway passengers.

1851

‘Adventures of Mr and Mrs Sandboys’ in Bells New Wkly Messenger 9 Mar. 6/2: I may mention not only the snooozers or railway sleepers, as we call them, and the dead-lurkers, or those who steal coats, etc. out of passages, but also those who go snow-gathering, or stealing clean linen off the hedges.

5. as a term of address.

1911		E.S. Sorenson ‘Shearer and Rouseabout’ in Life in the Aus. Backblocks 234: They hustle into their places, and one calls out, ‘Sling th’ poisoned baker this way, Texas!’ Another shouts, ‘Chuck us a bun, will yer!’ or ‘Jerk that spottified brownie this way, Snoozer!’.
1915		H.E. Rollins ‘A West Texas Word List’ in DN IV:iii 229: snoozer, n. [...] A playfully derogatory term meaning scamp, rascal; as in, ‘Come here, you old snoozer’.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 121: How does it strike you, old snoozer?
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 242: D’you know where you can go to, snoozer?

6. a bedroom.

1910

‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Bedrooms’ Sporting Times 15 Oct. 2/3: In a ‘snoozer’ that’s worth twenty-five thousand pound / You would say there’s no room for the pip.

7. (US) a sheep-herder.

1911		J. Lomax Cowboy Songs 304: I’m a snoozer from the upper trail!
1915		H.E. Rollins ‘A West Texas Word List’ in DN IV:iii 229: snoozer, n. The cowboy’s name for a sheep-herder.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 197: Held in still greater contempt by the cowboy was the ‘snoozer,’ or sheepman.
1954		Indep. Record (Helena, MN) 9 Oct. 3/7: ‘Snoozers’ take no part in this kind of work [i.e. cattle driving] at all. For they’re engaged in the herding of sheep.

8. (US) a pullman sleeping car; thus knock a snoozer, to travel by pullman.

1938		L. Beebe High Iron 224: Snoozer: Pullman car.
1942		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 21 Mar. 16: ‘My ace saw [...] came on [...] for me to knock a snoozer for the land where the ripe ones grow’.
1966		‘Railroads have “Slanguage”’ in Newark (OH) Advocate 21 May 3/3–4: snoozer — Pullman sleeper.

9. (Aus.) a baby.

1909		Northern Star (Lismore, NSW) 8 May 6/2: What’s that? How’s the little snoozer gettin’ along?
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

10. see sleeper n. (1a)