Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US Und.) that member of a confidence trick team who engages the prospective victim and lures him into the con.

1861		Vanity Fair (N.Y.) 28 Sept. 153: Next we shall see the Keynote alluded to as the ‘jimmy’ note, while the occasional sharp will be designated as a ‘steerer,’ and the flat as a ‘muff’.
1879		A. Pinkerton Reminiscences 256: I heard the voice of the elegant Dan Noble, who was dealing the game [...] urging the ‘cappers’ and ‘steerers’ to lose no time.
1886		T. Byrnes Professional Criminals of America 🌐 Then the roper-in apologizes, hurries off and reports to the steerer, who pulls a book out of his pocket and hunts up Austin. The book is what is known as a bank-note reporter, and gives a complete list of all the banks in the country.
1905		Little Falls Herald (MN) 31 Mar. 3/3: How to Operate the Shell Game with Profit [...] When the steerer gets the geezer in the push, let the boosters stall until the main plugger cops.
1915		Van Loan ‘The Spotted Sheep’ in Taking the Count 118: Logan’s the main finger of the bunch – the boss. The others are cappers and steerers.
1919		Van Loan ‘Chivalry in Carbon County’ in Score by Innings (2004) 320: It’s you, ain’t it? [...] And I thought it was a bunk steerer!
1927		H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 198: The banco steerer [...] lost also, and it was his duty to cause such an uproar that the woes of the victim were overwhelmed.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 58: The Banco establishments employed large numbers of steerers and ropers-in.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 9: Ropers and steerers (long used by gambling dives) were adopted, which of course increased the volume of business.
1956		‘Toney Betts’ Across the Board 246: The race-track managements encouraged touting, regarding the parasites as steerers for their bust-out joints.

2. (US Und.) anyone, e.g. a cab driver, hotel doorman or similar figure, who points a searcher towards the variety of self-indulgence they seek, e.g. sex, drugs, gambling.

1871		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 9 Feb. 2/6: Ropers and steerers are a class of well-dressed men who lounge in front of the principal hotels in the day time, and during dull times live off the earnings of fallen females.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 208: Steerers and cappers for ‘brace games’ are the most disreputable loafers in existence. They are men devoid of decency, honor, or a single redeeming quality. [...] During the day, they haunt bar saloons, billiard-halls, street corners, and low brothels. Many of them belong to the class described as ‘hangers-on’ of the rougher class of gamblingrooms; and of all human beings, none are lower, meaner, or more contemptible.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. n.p.: Gamblers are called knights of the green cloth, and their lieutenants, who are sent out after greenhorns, are called decoys, cappers, and steerers .
1896		St Paul Dly Globe (MN) 12 Apr. 2/2: Johnson is one of the numerous ‘steerers’ for a ‘big mitt’ joint on Minnesota street.
1901		C.R. Wooldridge Hands Up! 189: Several women known as panel-house ‘steerers’ were engaged in this vocation, and with their pretty faces and captivating smiles and flashy dresses were doing a land-office business in catching ‘suckers,’ as they termed it.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Poet and the Peasant’ in Strictly Business (1915) 79: On a corner lounged a keen-eyed steerer for a gambling-house.
1910		Committee of Fourteen Social Evil in N.Y. City 128: Some of the boys gradually drift into stealing or acting as ‘steerers’ for men who are looking for houses of prostitution.
1929		S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 132: Kerosene circuit actors ... dope peddlers ... steerers to gambling and bawdy houses.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 14: He may then become a beggar, a pimp, a steerer for some gambler, get into the heavy rackets, or try to grift single-handed.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 102: A ‘mug steerer’, she is termed.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 149: The dealer and the steerer heard the upstairs door open and close.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 209/2: Steer-joint. Any gambling establishment, night club, brothel, or the like, that uses steerers to attract persons.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 93: Hustlers, gambling house steerers and junk pushers find prospects in them.
1965		(con. 1940s) Malcolm X Autobiog. (1968) 180: I later became a steerer taking white men to what they wanted.
1970		L. Sanders Anderson Tapes 253: She was the steerer for an abortion ring.
1972		D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 81: steerer n. one who directs or steers customers to another, often for an illegal enterprise.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 33: Many [...] work as steerers, touts, guards, runners, and ‘cop men’.
1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 14: When they walk through ‘drug-copping zones’ (drug-selling locations) and see ‘steerers’ bringing customers to dealers.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 73: Such places, also known as cab joints or steer joints, sometimes paid cab drivers, known as steerers or cappers, to bring them victims.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 46: The steerer brought the customer to the dealer.

3. a crooked lawyer; an agent who supplies such a lawyer with clients.

1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 261: Steerer—shyster-lawyer.
1932		Seabury Report 72: The Court attendants vied with the Clerks in acting as steerers of cases to attorneys, in consideration of a share of the fee.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 224: steerer One who supplies a lawyer with clients.

4. (US gay) a man who runs a string of homosexual male prostitutes.

1972

(ref. to late 1950s) B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 112: During the late ’50s [...] those who managed hustlers [i.e. male homosexual prostitutes] were referred to as landladies and sweet ladies if female while male counterparts were pushers or steerers.

5. (US drugs) one who directs a buyer to a street dealer.

2005		R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 104: Next came the steerers, the cats who would send the business over to Cho for the actual hand-to-hand.
2008		P. Moskos Cop in the Hood 66: Corner drug dealing has five distinct jobs or positions: lookouts, steerers, money-man, slinger, and gunman.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 4: We size up everybody - the steerers calling brands, the dealers making hand-to-hands, and the junkies crawling in feeling bad.