Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a counterfeit coin.

1899

A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 120: Old Sol Bergman was on to it like a cat onto a mouse; with one swift grab he’d got the schlenter.

2. a counterfeit object.

1890

‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day by Day’, in Sporting Times 15 Feb. 2/2: ‘Ish dere a delegram yet? [...] Why, ’ere it lays,’ says he, a pickin’ up the shlenter.

3. a fraudulent trick; thus work a slanter, to defraud, to hoax, to play a confidence trick on; run a slanter, to make no effort to win.

1864		C.R. Thatcher Invercargill Minstrel 15: ’Twas a ‘shlinter’ for the tenant one morning departed Without paying his rent.
1889		Colonist (Launceston, Tas.) 2 Feb. 7/3: ‘A bare-faced swindle,’ ‘a cronk race,’ ‘a stiff-’un,’ ‘a schlenter,’ and numerous other complimentary epithets were flying around pretty thick.
1890		‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day By Day’, in Sporting Times 11 Jan. 3: All his shlenter-tokkuf friend’s a fressin’ against time in the shtuffy pack-parlour in ’Untley Street.
1892		Barrier Miner 8 Mar. 2/5: It would be sheer waste of space to give any extended description of what, to the veriest tyro in room, was a glaring ‘schlenter’. In the first place, Evans was not in condition, and inthe second, he was not trying.
1899		Manchestr Courier 18 Nov. 13/7: [of fake diamonds] ‘aal, boss, I did think you had a better eye [...] Can’t you see they’re all schlenters?’ The things were ‘schlenters’ or ‘snyde diamonds’.
1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 91: (of a faked telegram) ‘Vhy, ’ere it lays,’ says he, a pickin up the shlenter.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Mar. 24/3: Several know-alls yelled ‘Schlenter!’ but there was nothing crooked about it; that punch raised a lump as big as an egg.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 26 Oct. 6/3: He made several feeble efforts to send in a punch, but nearly always his blows fell short, and the crowd yelled ‘Schleinter’ with all their might.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 14 Aug. 1st sect. 1/1: They Say [...] That last week's fight at Midland is the cause of many heart-burnings. That some sports who lost their tin on Wells squealed ‘schlenter’.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 10 July 3/7: G.D. [...] works a slanter every Sunday night [...] Sooner pay 4d. than tram fares .
1918		Aussie (France) 7 Sept. 16/2: From the trench we vociferously urged him to greater effort. ‘Cripes!’ he gasped, when at last he joined us, ‘what did you keep shouting at me for – did yer think that I was running a slanter?’.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 45: slanter (or schlanter) — A trick. ‘To run a schlanter’ — to make no genuine effort to win a game.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: slanter. False play; deliberately trying to lose when running a race etc.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 45: Slinter and slanter, a trick or ruse.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 77: I don’t want the whole mucking world getting the idea it’s a slanter.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 166: That bloody Wilkinson. Cunning sod. He worked a slinter at the end. Ref shoulda penalised him.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 72: Greatest slanter in the history of the racing game, my old man reckoned.
1967		B. Crump Odd Spot of Bother 66: If he was working his fruit-and-vegetable-slinter [...] he’d cut off a pound and a half, absent-mindedly leave the knife sitting on the scales as he weighed it out at a pound and three-quarters.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 104/1: slinter, sometimes slanter, occasionally shlanter, a trick; adapted from ‘schlentei’ or ‘slenter’, probably Afrikaans or Dutch for an untrustworthy person on South African diamond fields.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 191: slanter/slinter A trick, often a mean one, often in the phrase to work a slinter. ANZ mid C19.

4. a third-rate performance, e.g. in a boxing match; thus a deliberate loss for financial gain.

1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 26 Oct. 5/1: Such schlenters as the Hall-Fogarty fizzle are bringing the noble art into disrepute.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 24/2: A few more shows like this and the Murphy-M’Gowan go, and pugilism would be restored to the favor it commanded before the introduction of the ‘schlenters’ that have ruled for the past five years. During the evening Otto Crib made his bow amid loud cheers, and complained that none of the Southern scrappers would take him on.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Sept. 26/3: [O]nly £230 materialised, which was ultimately handed over to the police for local charities through the referee sizing the thing up as the ‘schlenter’ that it looked.
1911		E. Dyson ‘At a Boxing Bout’ in Benno and Some of the Push 125: ‘Yaha-h, a schlinter!’ cried Benno. ‘A schlinter! A schlinter!’.
1935		C. Drew ‘Buckled’ in Bulletin 29 May 48/1: What’s more, he respected his profession, and was content to fight a schlenter every third battle or so.

5. (also schlenterer) a swindler, a confidence trickster.

1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Mar. 4/1: The crooks, cronks and schlenters that kill the game [i.e. boxing] .
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Mar. 4/1: The pitiable crowd of boxers [...] in Sydney are almost without exception ‘schlenterers’ of the first water.
1907		E. Dyson ‘Two Battlers and a Bear’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) Sept. 488/1: ‘Yeh bloated imposter, yeh immoral fat man, yeh swelterin’ human schlinter!’.