Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a thief.

a.1807

G.S. Carey ‘Every man his Mode’ in Myrtle and Vine 82: The Player’s a Prigster of every kind, / Of every fashion, of every mind.

2. a rival in love.

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia I i: The prigster lugged out in defence of his natural, the captain whipped his porker out, and away rubbed prigster and called the watch.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Prigster c. a Rival in Love.
1725		‘When My Dimber Dell I Courted’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 48: Nor can any prig-star charm.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: prig-star A Rival in love.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 70: prigstar A rival in a love affair.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 61: Prigstar, a rival in a love affair.

3. a general pej.

1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia III 38: If you meet either your Father, or Brother, or any from those Prigsters, stick up thy Countenance.
1714		C. Johnson Country Lasses V:i: Hah! Thou art a very pretty metaphorical prigster. Hearkye, Child, Go home presently,.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1800		G.S. Carey ‘Every Man His Mode’ in One Thousand Eight Hundred 29: The Player’s a prigster of every kind, [...] Sometimes like a beggar, sometimes like a king, / A tragical, comical, whimsical thing.