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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

needle point n.

also needle pointer

[like a needle, he is ‘sharp’; ? an added ref. to the pricking of cards to mark them for cheating purposes]

1. a card-sharp or dice cheat.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Needle-point c. a Sharper.
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.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. an aggressive person.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 254: needle-pointer see nail [i.e. ‘a person of over-reaching, imposing disposition’].
1876		J. Greenwood Low-Life Deeps 88: ‘Have you seen this Tom Paddock?’ [...] ‘I have,’ says she, ‘a needlepointer at Redditch; a fellow with no more breadth to his shoulders than there is between the eyes of a mouse, and he challenges you to a fight.’.