Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a fighter, a boxer, a brawler.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 12/1: She, upon his getting settled, ‘palled in’ with Barnash, the Westminster ‘scrapper bloke’.
1884		Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 13 Nov. 9/3: Why is he called Scrapper? Why, because he’s so fond of scrappin’ of course.
1888		Manchester Courier 26 May 15/1: She went into his room and said, ‘You’re a “scrapper” (fighter); I’ll show you how battles are won.’.
1892		H. Lawson ‘In a Dry Season’ in Roderick (1972) 81: He was a bit of a scrapper himself and talked a lot about the ring.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories ‘[D]e next one o’ dem ex-scrappers dat starts t’ show people wot he kin do round here is liable t’ get mixed up wid yours truly’.
1899		Sketch (London) 22 Feb. 18: One crime a night is the average brisk record of “Scrappers’ Alley” [...] a blind court where the unwary or drunken can be robbed and gagged at leisure.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Dangerous Dad’ Sporting Times 3 Feb. 1/4: For when times weren’t so off / ’E was famed as a heavy-weight scrapper.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 223: What did I mean — me, a rough-house scrapper from the red-light section — by buttin’ into a peaceful community.
1909		Star (Sydney) 8 July 13/3: ‘A lovely picture of a scrapper — I don’t think’.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 306: Long Otto [...] was no rube, but a scrapper from Biffville-on-the-Slosh.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 38: To be a professional scrapper a fellow needs a whole lot more stuff than just the ability to punch somebody in the jaw.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 51: ‘I know you’re a scrapper. I’ve seen you fight’.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 54: He was [...] the best scrapper of the gang.
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 130: An old-time scrapper, knows all there is to know about the fight game.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 96: The privilege of seeing some favourite scrapper knock his sparring partners silly.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 32: This battered little scrapper could still lay his hands on a fifty-pound note.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 122: A real scrapper, there was no dog in the neighbourhood that cat would run from.
1982		E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 114: Jimmy’s ould fella wasn’t a good scrapper, four cops could take him.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 190: I don’t give a stuff how good a scrapper you are.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 437: As a lad, he’d been a fair scrapper, allying his nimble, athletic balance to a vicious Irish temper.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 141: I wasn’t a contender, nothing like that, but i was scrapper and i put on a good show.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 18: These mothafucka’s be running around here smacking these ’mates up until they run into one that’s a scrapper and fights their ass’s back.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 4: He’d never thought she would look at him as anything but a scrapper.

2. (US tramp) a victim of either tramps or criminals who ‘puts up a fight’.

1899

J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 396: scrapper: a victim of either tramps or criminals who ‘puts up a fight’.