Diver

or dive (see quot., 1608], subs. (old).—A pickpocket (as Jenny Diver in ‘The Beggar’s Opera’); A DIP (q.v.). For synonyms, see STOOK-HAULER.

  1608.  DEKKER, The Belman of London, in wks. (GROSART), III., 140. [One who steals from houses by putting a boy in through a window to hand out to him the plunder—is called a DIVER.]

  c. 1626.  Dick of Devonshire, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii., 40. Your horse and weapons I will take, but no pilferage. I am no pocketeer, no DIVER into slopps.

  1705.  WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. i., p. 24 (2nd ed.).

  1748.  T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). DIVER (s.) … also a cant name for a pick-pocket.

  1828.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Living Picture of London, p. 56. Thieves frequently go well-dressed, especially pickpockets; good toggery, being considered a necessary qualification for his calling, without which the DIVER could not possibly mix in genteel company, nor approach such in the streets.

  1887.  BAUMANN, Londinismen, Slang und Cant, ‘A Slang Ditty,’ p. v.