toshern.1
/ˈtɒʃə/ Thieves' Cant.
a. A Thames thief who purloins copper sheathing from the bottoms of vessels in the river or from the docks.
ΚΠ
1859 J. C. Hotten Dict. Slang Toshers, men who steal copper from ships' bottoms in the Thames.
b. One who searches for valuable refuse in drains and sewers.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > endeavour > searching or seeking > [noun] > types of search or searching > one who searches sewers for valuables
sewer-hunter1851
tosher1851
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour II. 150/2 The sewer-hunters were formerly, and indeed are still, called by the name of ‘Toshers’, the articles which they pick up in the course of their wanderings along shore being known among themselves by the general term ‘tosh’, a word more particularly applied by them to anything made of copper.
1870 D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xxi. 331 These men..search the sewers..for..whatever is of value... They are called ‘Toshers’ or ‘Shore-men’.
1974 J. Aiken Midnight is Place v. 154 Gudgeon's your mate, boy, he's my other tosher.
Derivatives
ˈtoshing n. the practice of a ‘tosher’.
ΚΠ
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Toshing, a cant word for stealing copper sheathing from vessels' bottoms, or from dock-yard stores.
1974 J. Aiken Midnight is Place vi. 180 You tend to the toshing, let Mester Hobday tend to the dealing.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
toshern.2
A small fishing smack.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > fishing vessel > [noun] > other types of fishing vessel
spindlers-boat1243
manfare1326
stall boat1328
dogger1338
hackboat1344
coble1493
peter-boat1540
monger1558
trimboat1558
shotter1580
crab-skuit1614
fly-boat1614
cantera1642
dogger-boat1646
cag1666
yawl1670
barca-longa1681
hogboat1784
fishing-smack1785
hooker1801
hatch-boat1828
pinkie1840
fishing-bark1841
pookhaun1851
garookuh1855
jigger1860
fisher-bark1862
fisher-keel1870
Norwegian1872
scaf1877
mule coble1883
mule1884
Zulu1884
novy1885
tosher1885
skipjack1887
fleeter1888
fishing-float1893
rodney1895
mutton-ham boat1899
nobby1899
sinagot1927
sport fisherman1937
sport fisher1940
ski-boat1964
belly boat1976
1885 Daily Tel. 26 Nov. (Farmer) A tosher is not a long~shore driver, though both little vessels are employed in catching what they can close into the land.
1911 Daily News 10 Oct. 4 Time after time her stout-hearted skipper thrashed the smaller craft (she is but a ‘tosher’ of 23 tons, carrying only three hands), to windward.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
toshern.3
/ˈtɒʃə/ University slang.
An ‘unattached’ or non-collegiate student at a university having residential colleges.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > learning > learner > college or university student > [noun] > non-collegiate student
chamber-deacon1413
non-collegiate1683
non-coll1879
tosher1889
1889 Durham Univ. Jrnl. 9 Nov. 216 The ‘toshers’ as they are called in 'Varsity slang—the term is a corruption of the word ‘unattached’—have been looked down upon in the past.
1891 S. J. Duncan Amer. Girl in London 254 The man..being an unattached student, a ‘tosher’.
1897 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. May 724 A third deemed that the millennium had arrived with the advent to Oxford of the humble ‘tosher’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
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