subs. (old).—1. A cheat—especially one who victimised lottery office keepers. Cf., CARRIER.
1781. G. PARKER, A View of Society, II., 64 [named and described in].
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. CARRIER PIGEONS, sharpers who attend the drawing of the lottery in Guildhall, and as soon as a number or two are drawn, write them on a card, and run with them to a confederate, who is waiting near at hand, ready mounted; with these numbers he rides full speed to some distant insurance office before fixed on, where there is another of the gang, commonly a decent-looking woman, who takes care to be at the office before the hour of drawing, to her he secretly gives the number, which she insures for a considerable sum, thus biting the biter.
2. (racing).—One that runs from place to place with ‘commissions’; a kind of tout.
