Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a small boy who, like Oliver Twist in Charles Dickens’s novel (1837–9), is put in through an otherwise impassably small window; once inside the house, he either lets in the gang or passes booty out to them.

1591		Greene Second Part of Conny-Catching in Grosart (1881–3) X 123: Beside there is a Dyuer [...] for as he puts in a hooke, so the other puts in at the windowe some little figging boy, who playes his parts notably, and perhaps the youth is so well instructed that he is a scholler in the blacke Arte, and can pick a locke.
1608		Dekker Belman of London G: The Diuer workes his Iugling feates by the help of a boy, (called a Figger) whom he thrusts in at a casement.

2. a man in the context of having sexual intercourse.

1607		Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra II v: ’Twas merry when You wagered on your angling; when your diver Did hang a salt-fish on his hook which he With fervency drew up.
a.1742		W. Somerville ‘A Dainty New Ballad’ in Chalmers Eng. Poets (1810) XI 207/1: At length a youth full smart, Who oft by magic art Had div’d in many a hole [...] He’d sound it with his pole. [...] Engag’d her love-sick heart; Quoth she, my pretty Diver, With thee I’ll live for ever.

3. (also diving file) a pickpocket.

1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle V i: omnes: Foist! what’s that? mol.: A diver with two fingers; a pickpocket; all his train study the figging law, that’s to say cutting of purses and foisting.
1620		J. Melton Astrologaster 7: I am going home againe purposing thereafter to take heed of two Pick-pockets; the one, the Diuer that met with me in Pauls Church-yard; the other, the Doctor in Moore-fields, that rob’d me as well as the first.
c.1626		Dick of Devonshire in Bullen II (1883) II iv: Your horse and weapons I will take, but no pilferage. I am no pocketeer, no diver into slopps.
1663		Caveat for Cutpurses n.p.: The Divel of hell in his trade is not worse / Then [sic] Gilter, and Diver, and cutter of purse.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 84: It is ten pound to a penny but she plays Diver and picks his pocket.
1698		N. Ward ‘A Trip to Jamaica’ in Writings (1704) 166: They are look’d upon as a bungling Diver amonst a gang of Expert Pick-Pockets.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 294: Water-lane Divers, alias Pick-Pockets, contrive new stratagems to amuse unwary Passengers, till they File the Cly.
1725		Life and Glorious Actions of [...] Jonathan Wilde 16: One of the Bulking Files snabbles hill Poll (which is snatching away his Hat) and there by the Cull to save his Hat whips his Hands out of his Pockets [...] and in the mean time a Diving File Picks his Pocket.
1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera II iv: If any Woman hath more Art than another, to be sure ’tis Jenny Diver [...] she can pick his Pocket as cooly, as if Money were her only Pleasure.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 193: She enter’d herself into the Society of Divers, otherwise call’d File-clyers, Cut-purses, or Pick-pockets.
1741		Ordinary of Newgate Account of the Malefactors executed at Tyburn 18th Mar. 1740 Part II 5: She got her Name amongst her Companions of Jenny Diver, alias Diving Jenny from her great Dexterity in picking Pockets.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 29: There are others that use the Cant [...] The Diver, or Pick-Pocket.
1764		Bloody Register III 165: Mary Young [...] was so great a proficient in her art, that she got the name amongst her companions of Jenny Diver, or Diving Jenny, from her great dexterity in picking pockets.
c.1775		Only True and Exact Calendar title page: Jenny Diver and Moll Cook, are just arrived for Nag Fair, they exercise Gentlemen on the Course.
1781–2		J. Messink Choice of Harlequin I viii: Ye scamps, ye pads, ye divers, and all upon the lay.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.
1800		Sporting Mag. Apr. XVI 26/2: Ye scamps, ye pads, ye divers, / You’re all upon the lay.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1827		J. Wight More Mornings in Bow St. vi: [T]hy broad-daylight march through the public streets — link’d with draggle-tail'd drabs and divers.
1833		‘Ye Scamps, Ye Pads, Ye Divers’ Regular Thing, And No Mistake 62: [as cit. 1781–2].
1844		New Sprees of London 23: This is a regular dirty vagabond refuge for the low shicksters of Drury-lane and its environs, and all the ragged divers and prigs of that neighbourhood.
1858		‘The Honour of the Family’ Town Talk 10 July 110: Thieves of every grade, from the swaggering gentleman [...] to the diver or pickpocket.
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 8: What a lot of them there was! And all sorts, too, but divers especially.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Divers - Pickpockets.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. [as 1882].
1901		Argus (Melbourne) 20 Sept. 6/4: The pickpocket himself is [...] a cly faker, a diver, a fogle hunter [etc].
1902		H. Baumann ‘Sl. Ditty’ Londinismen (2nd edn) v: Are smashers and divers / And noble contrivers / Not sold to the beaks / By the coppers an’ sneaks?
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1914		Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/4: Gone is the time when the ‘swell mob’ went out on the road [...] and did business with divers ‘fixers’ who saw to it that they were allowed to work without a ‘pinch’ as an arrest was called.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 59/1: Diver. One who robs drunkards.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 107: A ‘dip’ or ‘diver’ is a pickpocket.

4. one who lives in a cellar.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

5. in pl., the fingers.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Divers [...] the fingers.

6. (US) a beggar who forages in garbage cans for food.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 70: diver [...] a beggar or tramp who digs hungrily in garbage cans when a prospect is seen approaching.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 12: Sell the boy a Ranger autograph, give the money to the Dumpster diver. A T-bird contribution.