Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. one who steals packages and parcels; a shoplifter; a pickpocket [lift v.].

1590		Book of Sir Thomas Moore facs.(S) (1911) I ii: His profession is, Lifter my Lord, one that can lift a pursse right cunningly.
c.1602		Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida I ii: Is he so young a man, and so old a lifter?
1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle V i: You your self shall cant Better then poor Moll can, and know more laws Of cheaters, lifters, nips, foysts, puggards, curbers, [...] than it’s fit Should be discovered to a noble wit.
1653		Mercurius Democritus 9-16 Feb. 352: [This] would prove the utter ruine and decay of Pettie-foggers, Lifters, Padds, Priggers, and Cut-purses.
c.1661		A Beggar I’ll Be in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 26: A Lifter my Aunt, and a Beggar myself.
1676		A Newgate ex-prisoner A Warning for House-Keepers 6: A Lifter is one who goes from shop to shop, pretending to buy, but it is to steal [...] They are most women that go upon this design.
1684		A Character of London-Village 2: So Pickpocket (when Deeper Lifter’s by) Budging aloof, Disowns the Mystery.
1690		D’Urfey Collin’s Walk canto 4 174: My selfe a Lifter, that have made, Thy Pocket empty as thy Head.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy III 100: [as cit. c.1661] A Lifter my Aunt, and a Beggar my self.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 24: His Fraternity being thus composed of Lifters, Pickpockets, and Filers.
1754		‘The Beggar’ Muses Delight 133: [as cit. c.1661].
1781		G. Parker View of Society II 138: Lifters is a species of theft executed in the following manner; A genteel looking woman goes into a large shop, and asks to look at some of the newest-fashion lace; she has a small fish-hook in her hand, which she fixes in a piece of lace, and then lets it slip down between her and the counter, at the same time covering it with her coats; this done, she buys a yard of lace, and then in putting her hand into her pocket, pulls a string which is fixed to the hook and communicates with her pocket, into which she lifts the lace by it.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1829		Sydney Gaz. 11 Apr. 3/3: I have been preyed upon by sharks, sharpers, flash-men, fencers, rum coves, squatters, nippers, lifters, and all the tag-rag-and-bobtail denoted by the worst words in the Slang Dictionary.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 20: Lifter – a robber of shops.
1846		N.Y. Herald 3 Jan. 1/4: [headline] A Female Lifter.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 Oct. n.p.: Patrolman Davis [...] may often be seen ‘piping’ [...] where a large number of the ‘lifters’ congregate.
1875		J.H. Warren Crying Shame of NY 236: Girl thieves are almost as prolific as boy ‘lifters’.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 May. 9/4: I hope I may be painted sky-blue if I wouldn’t rather tumble over the Jericho ‘lifters,’ [...] than ever again set my foot in your old second-hand graveyard.
1890		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Genteel Occupation’ Sporting Times 22 Feb. 1/2: The lifter is frequently ordered to gaol.
1897		Ade Pink Marsh (1963) 132: ‘Who was ’at cullud rascal ’at tried to make me out chicken-lifter?’ ‘[...] He did n’t say that you stole chickens.’.
1911		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 Days 171: We’re after that cow-lifter, an’ we mean to get him.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 28: derrick [...] Current amongst shoplifters chiefly. A ‘hoister’; a ‘lifter’; a ‘booster’; an ‘elevator.’.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 410: Lifter. One who robs shops.
1938		F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 156: These women are just as clever as any male pickpockets, and the actual ‘lifter’ spends years practising her art at home before venturing into the ‘business’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. (UK Und., also lift) a crutch.

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Lifter c. a Crutch.
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. 16: A Crutch – Lifter.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 45: Lifters, crutches.

3. an act of swindling.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 76: Finesse being used to obtain any man’s secrets, is a fetch; if much labour is employed, resembling a heaving at the capstan, ’tis a heave; but a single effort, by which the person operated upon is brought to think highly of self, is a lifter.

4. (US) a heavy blow [lit. lifting the victim off their feet].

1874

Burlington (IA) Hawk Eye 9 July 1/6: ‘Now,’ continued the hard-headed citizen, ‘Jist gimme one more and make it a lifter.’.