Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a child, esp. an illegitimate child [note Hay, The Lighter Side of School Life, (1914): ‘Lastly, comes the little boy — the Squeaker, the Tadpole, the Nipper, what you will’].

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Squeeker [...] a Bastard, or any other child.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		Flash Dict.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 83: Frightening all my little squeakers [...] to death.
1837		‘Plunder Creek’ in Bentley’s Misc. Feb. 125: I some think that’s the tote, but four or five squeakers, squealers, younkers, whelps.
1845		E.J. Wakefield Adventure in N.Z. I 319: A child [was called] a ‘squeaker’.
1854		Bell’s Life in Sydney 17 June 3/2: The case of Margaret Sanders against one Hogg, for the maintenance of his little ‘squeaker’ was postponed.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 280: He ought to have stuck in a few squeakers climbing up dad’s knee while he’s gorging his cat-lap and pannam.
1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 257: If a squeaker’s worth five quid, a full grown un’s worth a tenner.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 80: Squeaker, a child; squealer, an illegitimate child.
1918		‘Sapper’ Human Touch 280: There’s a fourth squeaker on the way.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 107/1: squeaker child; originally old whaling term.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

2. a pot-boy.

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 179: Squeeker A Pot-boy.
1688		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 213: A Barboy Squeker.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Squeeker c. a bar-boy.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 15: A Barboy – Squeaker.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: squeaker A Barboy.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: Squeakers pot boy.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 31: Squeaker [...] a pot boy.

3. an organ pipe.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Organ pipes are likewise called squeakers. The squeakers are meltable; the small pipes are silver. Cant.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

4. a foxhound.

1828

Sporting Mag. XXII. 23: He was often alone with the squeakers, and sometimes racing with the leaders.

5. a young pig.

1832		Satirist (London) 11 Nov. 367/1: Carney's first sea voyage was not in a slaver, but a squeaker—that is, a ship freighted with slaves to our appetites—pigs.
1857		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 July 3/3: She was prepared to go the whole hog to establish her claim to the precious squeaker.
1861		Dickens Great Expectations (1992) 24: If you’d been born a Squeaker [...] a four-footed Squeaker.
1889		Kipling ‘The Red Lamp’ in Civil & Military Gaz. 20 July (1909) 37: ‘The butcher he got up at four bells to put the old squeaker out of the way’.

6. an office-boy.

1849

Sam Sly 24 Mar. 3/2: He advises James C—n, the squeaker, of the Union Bank, not to brag so much to little boys about the amazing salary he has, and what gold he handles.

7. a heavy blow which makes the recipient ‘squeak’.

1821

Scots Mag. Mar. 249/2: We must give him a squeaker quickly or all will go wrong, I tell you [...] we will dart on him like lightning, give him the needful, and share the ready betwixt us.

8. a general insult; the image is of one who complains.

1852		Kendal Mercury 3 Apr. 6/2: Tell mother that we can’t do with Ned tomorrow, cause he’s a regular squeaker (cross child) and willent nab the bib (cry).
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Feb. 24/2: Tweedie, whose 12 months in Yankeedom have converted him into an out-and-out down-easter, gets back with the statement that Gaffney has ‘cold feet,’ is a confirmed ‘quitter,’ and a ‘squeaker’ of the most pronounced type, and would sooner creep into a rat-hole and starve than fight.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 16 Nov. 1/1: Of course there were the usual squeakers after the race.

9. an informer.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 28 Oct. 4/8: He is known as a ‘squeaker’— one who to save himself will willingly put away his pals.
1927		E. Wallace Squeaker (1950) 10: I just want to know who was the squeaker who squeaked!
1929		Mail (Adelaide) 23 Mar. 6/2: Lester once remonstrated with ‘Snowy’ Baker. Why? Some people shouted ’Squeaker!’.
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 170: ‘There’s a squeaker in the camp,’ she said. ‘Somebody’s selling us.’.
1930		Eve. Herald (Dublin) 9 Dec. 4/6: There are many terms used by crooks to describe this person [i.e. an informer] who is known as ‘copper’s nark,’ ‘squeaker,’ and ‘grasshopper’.
1931		Eve. News (Rockhampton, Qld) 27 May 3/1: Other curious names in everyday use' among criminals [are] ‘squeaker,’ or ‘stool-pigeon’ (an informer), ‘jacks’ (detectives), and ‘dogs’ (police shadowers, who dog the heels of suspects).
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1954		‘Nicholas Blake’ Whisper in the Gloom (1959) 23: He was a nark, nose, snout, grass, squeaker, or whatever coarse word is current.

10. a violinist.

1939

P.E. Miller Down Beat’s Yearbook of Swing n.p.: squeaker: a violinist.