Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a spur, usu. pl.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 334: Running on this way about a quarter of a mile my out-and-out pal, putting his bleeders into his prad galloped up to the first Jack.

2. (US) a knife, when used as a weapon.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 9: Chiv – a bleeder, a knife.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 150: Put up your bleeder, Sir; I arnt got a fancy for knives no how, they is so very cutting.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 44: The queer, unclassified sailors belonging to ships in the port – be they Lascars, or what not – are ever expert with their ‘bleeders’.

3. (UK Und.) a lie.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 6: Bleeder – a crammer, a lie.
1840		Flash Mirror 21: In consequence of a report being spread of his buying dead dogs, bodies of young children, &c. &c., [...] and working ’em up into sasengers and faggots, [he says] that it is all bleeder.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

4. a sovereign, which is ‘bled’ to one’s creditors.

1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

5. one who extorts money, thus a sycophant [bleed v.¹ (1)].

1953		W. Fisher Waiters 190: The former landlords had only been moderate bleeders.
1970		Meyer & Ebert Beyond Valley of the Dolls [film script] Kelly and Harris, they’re my friends. You’re a bleeder.

6. a person (occas. an animal), usu. but not invariably with derog. implications; also an object.

1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 61: There was the little bleeder gettin’ black in the face.
1909		G.R. Bacchus Pleasure Bound ‘Ashore’ 10: ‘His name was John Tucker, / The bugger, the fucker, / The bleeder, the blighter, the sod’.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Dec. 15/2: ‘Hold up, Joe,’ said Williamson. ‘What’s the pore bloke done to you?’ ‘What’s he done?’ thundered Weigall. ‘What’s he done? That’s the — — — knock-kneed bleeder that converted me!’.
1914		R. Tressell Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 190: It is a bit of a take-down for the bleeder, ain’t it, ’avin’ to play second fiddle.
1917		E. O’Neill In the Zone in Mayorga (1919) 197: Gawd blimey! They ain’t ’arf smart bleeders!
1929		‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 208: You silly bleeder. [Ibid.] 225: It am a bleeder [...] ’e said, ‘next time and you’re sacked and out you go.’ It am a bleeder.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 75: Ought to do away with these bleeders. Reglar death-traps.
1942		P. Larkin letter 7 Apr. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 34: I don’t know what in the world I shall do when you’ve all gone. Perhaps, in the Dean’s eyes, I shall ‘quieten down’. Fuck the bleeder.
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 207: Join the bleeding army! We’ll all be shoved in the bleeder ’fore the month’s out, never mind about joining it.
1954		J. Phelan Tramp at Anchor 84: If that bleeder Phelan fell into a cesspool he’d open a bleedin’ scent-factory.
1968		P. Terson Apprentices (1970) II iii: He must be a well-fed bleeder, that ’un.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 165: Shut up, you bleeder.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 57: ‘The Kohinoor?’ I said. ‘Yeah, that’s the bleeder.’.
1980		Linton Kwesi Johnson ‘Reggae Fi Peach’ 🎵 They kill Blair Peach, the dirty bleeders.
1989		A. Higgins ‘The Bird I Fancied’ in Helsingør Station and Other Departures 141: I’ll do that bleeder! So ’elp me.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 54: And you want to go to France eh, you little bleeders?
2008		(ref. to 1971) F. Dennis ‘Old Bailey’ Homeless in my Heart 180: You’re in for it now, by God! / If only you bleeders knew!

7. (Aus.) an exploitative or hard-driving employer, foreman or member of a working gang.

1902

‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 28 Dec. 5/4: ‘“Rise me wages, an’ shorten me hours o’ graft,” sez ther worker ter-day. “Right yer are!” sez ther boss. “But I puts on er bleeder, an’ he'll work ther innards out o’ yer, or I’ll know ther reason why”’.

8. generic for a working-class East Ender.

1902

J.H.M. Abbott Tommy Cornstalk 188: Sometimes, at night, neighbours would drop into your marquee. And there had come one who was a ‘bleeder’ – at any rate that is what he of the Fourteenth said of him. It seemed to be a pet name for a typical low-class Londoner – a slum-dragger, one of the very much ‘submerged tenth’.

9. a heterosexual woman; orig. S. Afr. gay, latterly used derog. by trans activists.

2003		K. Cage Gayle.
2020		A. Shrier Irreversible Damage 153: [T]his sort of trans-inclusive derogation of womanhood is increasingly common. Women are referred to as ‘breeders’ or ‘bleeders’.