Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a thief’s accomplice or a lookout.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Budge, Standing Budge, c. The Thieves Scout or Perdu.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 203: [...] Standing a Budge, the thieves’ scout or perdue.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.