whizzer

Noun

whizzer (plural whizzers)

1. A set of horizontal blades used to separate mineral particles.
2. A device used in milling to dry wheat, etc. by rapid spinning.
3. (UK, slang) A pickpocket.
   • 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 […]1931, The Police Journal, volume 4, page 504
   • It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed any warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers, whizzers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere in the crowds, in the underground, on railway trains […]1976, Michael Harrison, Beyond Baker Street: A Sherlockian Anthology, page 117
4. (historical) Synonym of whizgig (“spinning toy”).

   Synonyms:

   whizgig