Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. usu. in pl., a spur.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Persuaders. Spurs.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) .
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: The kiddey clapped his persuaders to his prad but the traps boned him; the highwayman spurred his horse hard, but the officers seized him.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 25: Persuaders – [...] spurs.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 127/2: Persuaders, cudgels or spurs.
1856		in J. Strang Glasgow and Its Clubs 586: The tailor soon lost command of his steed; while the persuaders [...] brought to bear rather unceremoniously on the flanks of the mare, made her unceremoniously throw up her heels.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 57: Persuaders, spurs.

2. a whip or a blow from a whip.

1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 17: This obstinate animal will not move without the use of a persuader!
1827		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 11 Mar. 885/2: [T]he persuaders of the drivers had lost their desired effect, and the drags [were] completely at a standstill in mud.
1859		Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 3/4: Doomed to dance a frantic hornpipe under the influence of six tolerable persuaders.

3. a horserider (who wears spurs and/or administers blows of a whip).

1827

Pierce Egan’s Life in London 10 June 988/3: [T]he persuaders—and the toddlers, puffing and blowing, were compelled to put their best foot foremost in order to keep up with the drags.

4. (also persuasive) a cudgel or bludgeon.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 25: Persuaders – cudgels.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
1879		‘’Arry on Crutches’ in Punch 3 May 201/1: A blugeon as big / As crib-cracker’s nobby persuader.
1888–96		Marshall ‘Une Affaire d’Honneur’ in Pomes 110: With finger nails she soon was going strong; As persuaders they were nobby, for it seems it was her hobby To invariably wear them rather long [F&H].
1895		Mirror of Life 24 Aug. 2/2: Little more than fifty years ago America was the home of the ‘ripper,’ ‘tickler,’ and ‘persuader,’ and England was renowned as the birthplace of an art which was supposed to be the antidote to that bane.
1917		A.G. Empey Over the Top 245: A persuader is Tommy’s nickname for a club carried by the bombers. It is about two feet long, thin at one end and very thick at the other. The thick end is studded with sharp steel spikes, while through the center of the club there is a nine-inch lead bar, to give it weight and balance.
1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 234: persuader—A billy; rubber club; blackjack.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 190: Nobody’s arsting you. Give him one over the nut with that little persuader.
1950		B. Spicer Blues for the Prince (1989) 119: Buster’s white kid gloves held a tight pocket of chamois sewn snugly around an ounce of bird shot. In his gloves, the persuaders were lethal.
1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] He held up the perusader [i.e. 15" of ball bearings stuffed into an inner tube] [...] It was so much more effective than a steel bar [...] nasty to be on the receiving end of, and very handy in an uneven match-up.

5. a revolver.

1839		Merchants’ Mag. I 41: The persuader . . . had a hair-trigger.
1841		W. Leman Rede Sixteen String Jack II iv: (Showing pistols) I came in with my persuader.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Oct. 13: [pic. caption] A Grass Widower Obtains Admittance to his Mother-in-Law and Wife’s Apartments [...] Then Tries a Pistol as a Persuader.
[1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Aug. 5/3: The manager presented his persuasives, and the Chinamen rolled up their pigtails, and returned to quarters].
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 119: The Colonel arose and pulled his Persuader.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Dec. 40/3: Love to Jerry. Lord, how he did run when he twigged my persuader.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 355: ‘I’ve got my little persuader with me. Take a squint.’ Out of the darkness, [...] they saw thrust a hand holding a revolver.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 166: The cowboy’s names for his gun were legion [...] ‘persuader.’.
1944		J. Archibald ‘Skip Tracer Bullets’ in Popular Detective June 🌐 Willie guessed the persuader was not too modern. But it had a cylinder filled with slugs.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 21/1: A ‘Gunny’ [...] was a bloke whose pocket bulged with a hidden persuader, a gun-man.

6. any implement of torture.

1868

Sportsman 23 Jan. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [F]urther means of torture, such the thumbscrews, the boots, the rack, the necklace, and divers other ‘persuaders’.

7. the penis.

1888–94

‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IV 743: She was inexperienced, but her belief in the size of my persuader improved.

8. (US Und.) safe-breaker’s tools.

1915

D. Lowrie My Life out of Prison 15: He had seen ‘ex-cons’ kneeling before safes with [...] ‘soup’ and other implements and ‘persuaders’ necessary for forcible entrance.

9. (Aus.) in horse-racing, the whip.

1996

J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 125: ‘[E]nforcers’ - jockeys who don’t mind laying in with the old persuader.