cadet, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cadet n.

[Fr. cadet, a younger son; the term was used of ‘a gentleman who entered the army without a commission, to learn the military profession and find a career for himself (as was regularly done by the younger sons of the French nobility before the Revolution)’ (OED); the sl. uses imply inexperience, or suggest (sense 1) that such gentlemen spent much of their time in mischievous idleness]

1. (US) one who procures young women to become prostitutes; thus the cadet system (see cit. 1909).

1902		Committee of 15 Report in Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone (1958) 184: The infamy of the private house with all the horrors arising from the cadet system did not satisfy official greed.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 247: Cadet. An abductor of young girls.
1909		C.B. Chrysler White Slavery 238: The plan was a terrible success. The boys commenced to bring in the girls. They had nice clothes; their hair was allowed to grow long and hang away down on their forehead. They wore white mufflers around their necks, and this was the origination of the famous ‘cadet’ system of New York. Thousands of boys from fifteen to twenty-two years [...] joined the ‘cadets’ and went into the tenement district corrupting young girls and inducing them to enter the life of shame.
1913–14		E. O’Neill The Web in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 52: In appearance he is a typical ‘cadet,’ flashily dressed.
1921		H.B. Woolston Prostitution in the US 83: The business of prostitution is that of the male procurer, ‘pimp’ or ‘cadet’ as he is often called.
1927		(con. mid-19C) H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 200: Knock-out drops were also used with great success by the cadets and procurers [...] Many of the former were organized into associations, and maintained club rooms.
c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 214: Pimps, cadets (girl hunters) went into the sticks, the small towns, and made promises of easy jobs to country girls.
1941		H. Asbury Und. of Chicago 265: In some cases, they [prostitutes] were accompanied by their cadets who were continually on the lurk for fresh victims [DA].
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 41: cadet An abductor or enticer of young girls; one who prostitutes his wife or mistress; one who supplies girls for the white slave traffic.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 39/1: Cadet. A pimp, especially a scout who procures new girls in the white slave traffic.
1958		(con. 1890s) Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 183: They hired handsome young men, known as cadets in the business, who applied all their energies to seducing suitable girls.
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 34: In the old days – cadets used to hustle up chicks for the houses.

2. (drugs) a novice user of drugs.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 306: cadet. A new drug addict.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).

3. (S.Afr.) a junior gangster.

1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 100: Dagga-smoking was on the increase among boys and girls, some of whom were only 12 to 13 years old. More and more of these underworld ‘cadets’ were becoming habitual drinkers.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 238: ‘Major Worries told us not to waste our time with South Crong cadets’.

4. see space cadet under space n.