body-snatcher n.
1. a bailiff.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | View of Society II 71: The Body-Snatchers happened to get intelligence where he was [...] slapped him on the shoulder, informed him that he was a prisoner, and in that manner compleated his Snatch. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Real Life in London I 166: A Bailiff or his follower – they are also called Body-snatchers. | |
| Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 193: You are nothing more than some journeyman body-snatcher, in a borrowed suit of togs, to come the bounce. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Spirit of the Times (NY) 14 Apr. 2/3: Paul Pry — Barely is our sight gladdened by this [i.e. a newspaper] from Washington but some ‘body snatcher’ has him in his pocket and makes tracks. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Aus. Sl. Dict. 10: Body Snatcher, [...] a bailiff. |
2. a cat-stealer.
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
3. a resurrectionist [SE after mid-19C].
| Vocab. of the Flash Lang. | |
| Belfast News-Letter 2 Jan. 4/1: The body-snatchers they have come [...] It’s very hard those kind of men. Won’t let a body be. | |
 | Bubbles of Brunnen 126: Any one of our body-snatchers would have rubbed his rough hands. | |
| Launceston Wkly News 1 Sept. 3/3: The two body snatchers [...] laughed and walked on. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Mar. 7/4: One firm of body-snatchers [...] has a contract to furnlsh ‘stiffs’ to medical colleges in Boston, Philadelphia and Newark. | |
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant. |
4. a cabman.
| (ref. to 1840-60s) in Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
5. a police officer.
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| Paved with Gold 254: Now, if you or I was to do such a dodge as that, we should have the body-snatchers (police-officers) after us. | |
| Police! 320: A policeman ... A fly, [...] body-snatcher, raw lobster, tin ribs, stalk, danger signal, terror etc. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 19: Here’s one of those cops that ain’t made a pinch in a month – a body snatcher – you know, Jim. | |
| Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 299: One brown dumpy Mex with gold-handle butt gun one crewcut American FBI body-snatcher. |
6. a promiscuous, ‘forward’ woman, esp. a prostitute.
| ‘Prostitutes and Criminal Argots’ in Lang. Und. (1981) 117/1: bladder. An unattractive prostitute. Also beetle, blister, boat-and-oar, body-snatcher, broken car, bum curtain [...] each expressing varying degrees of unattractiveness. |
7. an undertaker.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 14: Body-snatchers — Undertakers’ men. | |
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 10: Body Snatcher, an undertaker. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Aug. 11/4: Pushing Business. / Bodysnatcher: ‘’Ow’s the wife?’. | |
| Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| , | | DAS. |
8. a doctor.
| ‘Noel’ in Naval Occasions 28: ‘Now then,’ he shouted truculently to the Young Doctor, ‘I don’t mind if you do wish me a happy Christmas, you benighted body-snatcher.’. |
9. a sniper.
| Over the Top 128: It was Old Scotty’s great ambition to be a sniper or ‘body snatcher’ as Mr. Atkins calls it. |
10. a weekly insurance payment collector.
| 25 Years in Six Prisons 130: He was the collector for an insurance company [...] Sometimes these men are called ‘body-snatchers.’ [Ibid.] 235: One of those ‘body-snatchers,’ as they are called in Hoxton, who call at the houses of artisans for their weekly twopences for an insurance company. |
11. (US campus) a person who steals someone else’s date.
| ‘Wayne University Sl.’ AS XXX:4 302: body snatcher, n. One who steals another’s date. |