or klicker, subs. old).—1. A shop-keeper’s tout. [Formerly a shoemaker’s doorsman or BARKER (q.v.), but in this particular trade the term is nowadays appropriated to a foreman who cuts out leather and dispenses materials to workpeople; a sense not altogether wanting from the very first.]
c. 1690. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew. CLICKER: the shoemaker’s journeyman or servant, that cutts out all the work, and stands at or walks before the door, and saies, ‘What d’ye lack, sir? what d’ye buy, madam?’
1698. WARD, The London Spy, pt. V., p. 117. Women were here almost as Troublesome as the Long-Lane CLICKERS.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). CLICKER (s.): the person that stands at a shoe-maker’s door to invite customers to buy the wares sold there.
1864. HOTTEN, Slang Dictionary. CLICKER: a female touter at the bonnet shops in Cranbourne Alley. In Northamptonshire, the cutter out in a shoemaking establishment.
2. (popular).—A knockdown blow.—See CLICK, subs. sense.
3. (thieves’).—One who apportions the booty or ‘regulars.’
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
