subs. (old).—Formerly a travelling merchant; a pedlar: now (in London vegetable markets) a middleman. Cf., BUMMAREE.
1662. FULLER, Worthies; Dorsetshire. Horses, on which HAGLERS used to ride and carry their commodities.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. A HAGLER, one that buys of the Country Folks, and sells in the Market, and goes from Door to Door.
1697. VANBRUGH, Æsop, ii., 1. I’se no HAGLER, gadswookers; and he that says I am—’zbud, he lies!
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. I., p. 83. A HAGGLER being, as I before explained, the middle-man.
