Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a punch, a blow.

1824

Pierce Egan’s Life in London 26 Sept. 5/2: His Lordship rushed in with great impetuosity, and placed two feelers on Matthew's proboscis, which uncorked the claret tidily.

2. a hand; a fist.

1844		Era (London) 28 July 7/4: Oakley dashed in a feeler on the ribs to try the wind.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Jan. 2/3: Jack continued to extend his left feeler.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 259: I one day asked a man if the hard work of prison did not spoil his hands for delicate manipulations. Oh, bless you, no! he replied; In a week or two a man can bring his hooks and feelers into full working trim again and no mistake.
1916		P. MacGill The Great Push 145: ‘Not a word now,’ said Teake, fixing one eye on me and another on the hen. ‘I must get my feelers on this ’ere cackler.’.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1941		A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 50: Creep joints where they’d put the feelers on a guy’s clothes.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Russians are Coming’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Get yer feelers on that.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 401: Keith felt the soft arrival of sweat on the palms of his feelers.

3. (US Und.) a small boy who pilfers small items, then hands them over to his elders in a gang for sale to a junk-shop.

1853

N.Y. Times 4 Mar. 2: Those who thieve, usually go in gangs and employ a small lad as ‘a feeler,’ i.e., he is sent ahead, and if a piece of cloth or a basket or any little article is lying out in front, he pockets or clutches it and carries it to the older boys, who sell it at once to the junk-shops and share the spoils among themselves.

4. a finger, usu. in pl.

1912		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 36: Hiram Hughes the cop was all a twitter [...] Just as he was about to slip his feelers around the artillery a deep voiced piped, If you are he is Salome.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1936		Archie Seale Man About Harlem 18 Apr. [synd. col.] [T]his lovely lass digs the dirt from your feelers at Charity’s slick-’m and glick-’em shop.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1989		J. Hibberd Memoirs of an Old Bastard 156: Penny Goriot hopped in, rubbing her feelers, hoping that I’d order a bottle of La Tâche.