Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. something or someone exceptionally large of its kind.

1596		Nashe Have With You to Saffron-Walden in Works III (1883–4) 140: My book will grow such a bouncer, that those which buy it must bee faine to hire a porter to carry it after them in a basket.
1773		O. Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer Act II: Ah! could you but see Bet Bouncer of these parts, you might then talk of beauty.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Bouncer, a large man or woman.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1812		J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 213: You have heard of Miss Bouncer, without any doubt [...] She smil’d in my face while she drank up my wine; of my punch and cakes, oh my dear had a share.
1857		D.P. Thompson Trappers of Umbagog 68: ‘This, I suppose, is the far-famed moose?’ ‘Yes, and a bouncer at that.’.

2. (UK Und.) a swaggerer, a blusterer, a bully.

1628		R. Speed Counter-Rat E4: Vp comes the Bredah-Bouncer [...] Of Turnebull-Punks a staring Trouncer.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 192: I’m captain O’Cutter, / No bouncer or strutter.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1851		Bell’s New Wkly Messenger 9 Mar. 6/2: The several descriptions of London thieves are [...] bouncers, or those who plunder by swaggering.
1855		R. Carboni Eureka Stockade 10: A party of Yankees, with revolvers and Mexican knives - the garb of ‘bouncers’ in those days - jumped the second hole of the Britishers.
1861		H. Mayhew (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor IV 24: ‘Bouncers and Besters’ defrauding, by laying wagers, swaggering, or using threats.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Bouncers and Besters - Defrauding by wagers (at races, and elsewhere), by swagging and using threats.
1888		Camperdown Chron. (Vic.) 15 Nov. 3/1: I gave him the money because I was afraid. He caught me by the coat and tore it. I heard that he was a bouncer.
1890		Referee (Sydney) 26 Nov. 3/3: Billy is a bouncer, and with the aid of the ‘fly boy from Manly,’ intended to cut the banking account of the books into seven pieces, six for himself, and one for them. So, boys, beware.

3. a liar.

1764		Foote Lyar in Works (1799) I 293: He will tell ye more lies in an hour, than all the circulating libraries put together will publish in a year [...] he was always distinguished by the facetious appellation of the Bouncer. [Ibid.] I 314: Nor is the character of my son to be blasted with the breath of a bouncer.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 243: Such a bouncer!! [...] I mean that he’s the greatest liar that ever walked a deck.

4. an unashamed lie.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1806		G. Colman Yngr John Bull II iii: What a bouncer you told me.
1814		T. Dibdin Ninth Statue I i: Thats a great big bouncer, by St. Patrick!
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1831		Tasmanian (Hobart) 3 Sept. 8/1: Captain Skardon says that the boats started from moorings laid down for the purpose. Now this is a bouncer of the Captain’s.
1839		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 361: That last stoary I roat about you and Larnder was as big a bownsir as ever was.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 350: The more startling the bouncers he told, the more successful were his anecdotes [...] though they all voted him the greatest liar they ever met.
1847		Sydney Morn. Herald 9 Feb. 3/6: [H]e [...] has induced you, upon this point as well as others, not merely to be guilty of a fib of omission, but to utter a number of downright out-and-out palpable bouncers.
1853		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Feb. 2/7: He means to svere as how I vore a vig, and that’s a bouncer.
1868		M.E. Braddon Dead-Sea Fruit II 205: I should say wait, and put your trust in Time — Time, the father of Truth, as Mary Stuart called him when she wanted to obtain belief for a bouncer, — and oh, what an incredible number of royal bouncers were carried to and fro in the despatches of that period!
1877		W.S. Gilbert Engaged in London Assurance and other Victorian Comedies (2001) Act III: He does not hesitate to invent, I am not quite sure of the word, but I think it is ‘bouncers’.
1878		Week (Brisbane) 6 Apr. 20/2: [Their] capacity for playing marbles when they should be delivering their papers is only equalled by the ‘bouncers’ they are capable of improvising when charged with dilatoriness.
1902		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley’s Opinions 87: Th’ earnest youth in sarch iv a career in life ’ll be taught lyin’ individjally all’ in classes [...] the r-ready fake, th’ bouncer, th’ stiff, th’ con, th’ bunk, th’ poetic lie, th’ business lie, th’ lie imaginative.

5. a large ‘bouncing’ baby.

1832		Satirist (London) 4 Nov. 355/4: ‘By the powers!’ as the Knight of the Bath said, on beholding it, ‘it [i.e. a baby] is a bouncer, and highly creditable to all parties concerned’.
1891		Queenslander (Brisbane) 14 Mar. 503/4: The baby was his first, and he wanted to weigh it. ‘It’s a bouncer!’ he exclaimed.
1904		Dly Teleg. (Sydney) 20 Feb. 12/2: ‘The largest baby we ever had here was sixteen pounds, and he was a bouncer’.

6. (UK Und.) a thief who steals from shops, often while distracting the merchant’s attention with his argumentative bargaining.

1839		W.A. Miles Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 91: There is another ‘caste’ or class called ‘bouncers,’ who enter a shop, and while bargaining contrive to steal property.
1851		Bell’s New Wkly Messenger 9 Mar. 6/2: The several descriptions of London thieves are [...] bouncers, or those who plunder by swaggering [...] pitchers, or those who do so by passing off one thing for another; drummers, or those who do the same by stupefying persons with drink; macers, or those who write beging letters.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 266: Joe the Bouncer at his old game again.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 87: One who steals from the shopkeeper while pretending to effect an honest purchase – a bouncer.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Bouncer - A thief who contrives to steal while bargaining with the shopkeeper.
1889		Clarkson & Richardson Police! 347: Shoplifters, or ‘bouncers,’ are of a different class [...] There are nearly always two of them.

7. an energetic person.

1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 129: And Mr Bouncer ‘went the complete unicorn’ [...] by extemporizing a farewell solo to Verdant.
1860		Hants. Advertiser 19 May 7/5: The Huge Yankee Bouncer Making a Fool of Himself.
1884		Henley & Stevenson Admiral Guinea I vi: Ah, and a bouncer you are, and no mistake.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 12 May 5/4: There three bouncers have had me drivin’ ’em for half a day, and [...] they won’t part up.

8. a surprise.

1867

W. Phillips Lost in London I i: (Aside) Now for a bouncer! (Aloud) Her!!!

9. (US) a social climber.

1993

(ref. to mid-late 19C) I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 224: Mrs. Astor’s crowd named the upcoming swells the Bouncers.

10. (orig. US) a large, tough man employed to keep order in premises, often a pub, club, concert hall etc.

1860		Hants. Chron. 19 May n.p.: He throws the Bouncer a Cross Buttock’.
1865		Nat. Police Gaz. 29 Apr. 4/2: Old Moyamensing is almost as famous for its lawless gangs of boys and young men as it was in the days of the ‘killers’ and ‘bouncers’.
1885		Sun (NY) 24 Sept. 2/3: Bouncers are [...] men of prudence and self-control, as well as strong of arm and deft in the art of bouncing.
1886		Lantern (New Orleans, LA) 15 Sept. 3: Frank Murphy, bouncer in 12 Royal Street, seems to be furnished with more than the average amount of brass.
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 49: A bouncer [...] plunged about in the crowd, dragging bashful strangers to prominent chairs, ordering waiters here and there and quarreling furiously with men who wanted to sing with the orchestra.
1894		Mirror of Life 24 Feb. 11/3: American theatres lack the bouncer who in England always throws out those who guy actors.
1901		A. Binstead More Gal’s Gossip 70: The Heavy-Weight Bouncer, who Worked like a Beaver, but couldn’t Knock a Hole in a Tub of Butter.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 351: Bouncer in a Second avenue joint.
1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 79–80: A professional bouncer in the employ of the rummery noted the snoozing patron.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 260: Bouncer — the plug-ugly who throws out the victims who want to make trouble, especially in a house of prostitution.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: Francis and the bouncer dragged the little guy out.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 177: I called for Margaret, and he began abusing her. Margaret pushed the buzzer for Rudy, the bouncer.
1938		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 26 Feb. 3/4: [A] gentleman called at a King's Cross cabaret and informed the ‘Bouncer’ of the establishment of his intention to collect a taxi fare.
1944		R.L. Bellem ‘Killer’s Cure’ Hollywood Detective Mar. 🌐 [He] looked more like a professional bouncer than a diamond salesman; he had the build of a grizzly bear, a bullet-shaped conk with the hair cropped short, and two of the prettiest cauliflower ears you ever piped outside a boxing arena.
1950		B. Spicer Blues for the Prince (1989) 119: There was a bouncer at the old Bohemian Club who used a persuader in both hands.
1960		J. Havoc Early Havoc 36: Ex-marathoners [...] acted as trainers, nurses, cashiers, cooks, bouncers, and general cleaners.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 14: The management were on hand to see that their clientele got the best of everything, and that included bouncers.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 134: I’ve been making like a bouncer keeping everybody from tearing your joint down.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 373: When a fight broke out [...] two ageing bouncers cruised along and floored the likely victor with crisp punches to the nose.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 65: Hell, he’d never be as big as he was [...] when he was working as a bouncer at the Salisbury Club.
1999		Guardian Sport 8 Jan. 16: He calls the bouncers off and says he’s quite happy to let me stand in the corridor.
2004		(con. 1982) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 274: My work as a bouncer led to me being offered a couple of ‘minding’ jobs.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 350: Mirabel’s friends were all night-owls - DJs, bartenders, and bouncers.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 78: A yarn about a nightclub bouncer sacked for being HIV-positive.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 46: The male PE teachers [...] took it upon themselves tae act like the bouncers ae the school.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 83: The [...] bouncers were also instructed to begin charging drug dealers [...] to operate in certain nightspots.

11. (UK Und.) a sharp, a cheat.

1856		H. Mayhew Great World of London I 46: ‘Bouncers’ and ‘besters,’ who cheat by laying wagers. [Ibid.] II 90: The ‘Bouncers’ and ‘Besters’ [obtain their means] by betting, intimidating, or talking people out of their property.
1861		H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 24: ‘Bouncers and Besters’ defrauding, by laying wagers, swaggering, or using threats.
1886		W. Newton Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 11: I will now introduce you to what they call the ‘Bouncer,’ or Swindler [...] To encourage the people to purchase his ‘pokes’ more freely, he will pretend to drop three half-crowns into a ‘poke’ and offer it for sale for half a crown.

12. (Aus./UK Und.) a pimp, esp. one who practises the Murphy (Game), the n. (1)

1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 128: The Bouncer — The class of crime represented by this, the slang name of its professors, [...] is the means of extracting large sums of money from many gentlemen in society who would be proof against any other species of robbery or fraud.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 11: Bouncer, the companion of a woman who allures men to her house; suddenly the ‘bouncer’ appears and claims the woman as his wife, bouncing the man from the place minus his cash, etc.; common bouncer, one who uses a boy for the purpose of accusing men of an abominable offence.
1937		M. Pellew Dead March in the Desert 36: The inside had the weary, untidy look of a place that lives properly only by night and quails in the light of the morning. In pairs at little round tables were one or two men who looked like bouncers, and women who were unmistakably prostitutes.
1956		V. Kelly Bogeyman 43: The woman’s bouncer, a burly tough known as Socker Barnes, was deliberately picking a quarrel with Gabriel.

13. usu. in pl., female breasts.

1988		J. McDonald Dict. of Obscenity etc.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 401: Nice bouncers she got. Pity a bit on the small side. Still you lose respect after a while for the bigger tit.
1999		Guardian Editor 16 July 20: Blimey – Look at them bouncers!