scourer, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

scourer n.

also scowrer

[scour v.² (3); the term was used as the title of the play by Thomas Shadwell, The Scowrers (1691) ‘an excellent but coarse comedy, which gives an interesting picture of the times’ (DNB)]

(UK Und.) a dissolute young man who roams the streets, usu. as one of a gang, beating up passers-by, breaking windows, attacking the watch and generally acting in a hooligan manner.

1672		Wycherley Love in a Wood V ii: No Burgundy man or drunken Scourer will reel my way.
a.1680		Rochester ‘A Satire Upon the Times’ in Works of Rochester (1721) 19: But may lewd Scowrers no Redemption find.
1687		C. Sedley Bellamira IV i: Here have been Scourers, breakers of Windows.
1691		T. Shadwell [play title] The Scowrers.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk IV 272: A bawdy bachelor, talking with an old trout was saying, Remember, rusty gun. I will not fail, said she, scourer.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Scowrers, c. Drunkards, beating the Watch, breaking Windows, clearing the Streets, &c.
1712		J. Gay Trivia (1716) Bk III 47: Who has not heard the Scourer’s Midnight Fame? Who has not trembled at the Mohock’s Name?
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1732		Gentleman Instructed Pt III 491: He spurr’d to London, and left a thousand Curses behind him. Here he struck up with Sharpers, Scourers, and Alsatians.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1767		Stamford Mercury 3 Dec. 1/1: What prowess modern Bucks display, / Above the sneaking feats we’re told / Of reptile Bloods, in times of old; / When Scow’rers and Mohocks laid claim / To all the flattery of the flame.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1839		(con. 1715) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 117: He’s the leader of the Mohocks, the general of the Scourers, the prince of the rakes, the friend of the surgeons and the glaziers, the terror of your tribe and the idol of the girls.
1842		C. Mathews Career of Puffer Hopkins 61: [Ch. title] Adventures of Puffer as a Scourer.
1859		(ref. to early 18C) G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 209: The ‘Mohocks,’ ‘Scourers,’ and ‘Sweaters’ of Queen Anne’s time.