Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an outstanding example, e.g. of a joke.

1833

Satirist (London) 7 Apr. 533/3: ‘I have thought of a conundrum [...] Now, then, you swab,’ continued the King, ‘look out for a dazzler’.

2. esp. of an ostentatious or notably attractive woman, one who dazzles.

1861		Hills & Plains I 60: [He] went forth upon the Mall to behold the dazzler again.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 480: And Kathleen is a dazzler, and no mistake.
1886		Omaha Dly Bee 26 Sept. 11/2: Ye Bostonese Lassie [...] she’s a dazzler.
1899		Kansas City Jrnl (MO) 7 May 18/2: Florrie West [...] is known as ‘the dazzler’.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 14/4: The sequel to this season’s divorce is the approaching knot-tying of the freed sinner and the lady that came between. The affair is fixed for the last week of August, when this Claudis [sic] makes the dazzler ‘fast his wife.’.
1913		Day Book (Chicago) 17 Nov. 15/1: A new beauty [...] that is going to be a ‘dazzler’ who will take Washington by storm.
1925		S. O’Casey Juno and the Paycock Act I: I saw yous [...] hangin’ on his arm – a thin, lanky strip of a Micky Dazzler, with a walkin’-stick an’ gloves.
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 128: Wait till you meet her, sport. She’s a dazzler.
1960		J. Havoc Early Havoc 76: Louise was a a dazzler, her skin so perect [...] her dark eyes were serene.
1976		J. Braine Waiting for Sheila (1977) 11: They’re not professional dazzlers, they are ordinary women.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 77: The girls, they come around the whole time. [...] These pictures and visions, little duchesses, dazzlers and poules de luxe.

3. an exceptional example of physical dexterity, e.g. a blow or kick.

1880		Reade Good Stories 127: The carter…received a dazzler with the left, followed by a heavy right-hander on the throat.
1947		Kent & Sussex Courier 26 Dec. 6/3: Heywood [...] picked up a pass from the opposite wing and beat Morrison with a dazzler.