Hoister
noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 One who, or that which, hoists or lifts.
"[…] putting one foot into it, so as the better to secure his slippery hand-hold on the whip itself, the hoisters ran him high up to the top of the head, almost before Tashtego could have reached its interior bottom."
- 2 an operator of a hoist wordnet
- 3 A thief. UK, slang
"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 […]"
Example
More examples"[…] putting one foot into it, so as the better to secure his slippery hand-hold on the whip itself, the hoisters ran him high up to the top of the head, almost before Tashtego could have reached its interior bottom."
Etymology
From hoist + -er.
More for "hoister"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.