whizzer

English

Etymology

whizz +‎ -er

Noun

whizzer (plural whizzers)

1. A set of horizontal blades used to separate mineral particles.
2. A device used in milling to dry wheat, etc. by rapid spinning.
3. (UK, slang) A pickpocket.
   • 1931, The Police Journal, volume 4, page 504:

     In order better to appreciate the use of argot among thieves, a visit to a few public bars of the third-class public houses of Kennington or in the immediate vicinity of the Elephant and Castle would prove of great value, as hoisters, whizzers, tea-leaves, con-heads, broadsmen and brass nobs […]

   • 1976, Michael Harrison, Beyond Baker Street: A Sherlockian Anthology, page 117:

     It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed any warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers, whizzers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere in the crowds, in the underground, on railway trains […]

   • 1981, East End Underworld, page 146:

     They were whizzers (pickpockets) but they would also take part in burglaries.

   • 2012, Edgar Wallace, The Flying Squad:

     He knew the whizzers – those innocent-looking men who crowd into omnibuses and rob the poor of their bitterly won earnings […]

4. (historical) Synonym of whizgig (“spinning toy”)