piker

[pahy-ker]

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noun Informal.

a person who does anything in a contemptibly small or cheap way.

a stingy, tight-fisted person; tightwad.

a person who gambles, speculates, etc., in a small, cautious way.

Origin of piker

1275–1325; Middle English: petty thief, equivalent to pik(en) to pick¹ + -er¹; compare dial. (N England, Scots, Hiberno-English) pike to pick¹

Synonyms for piker

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR piker ON THESAURUS.COM

2. cheapskate, penny pincher, skinflint.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for piker

deserter, dropout, goldbrick, wimp, slacker, shirker, goof-off, tightwad, Scrooge, skinflint, goldbricker

Examples from the Web for piker

Historical Examples of piker

Siebold, who really was no piker, was slipping on his gloves and having them laced up.
Radio Boys Loyalty
Wayne Whipple
No wonder you don't want to stop for any of this piker stuff.
It Pays to Smile
Nina Wilcox Putnam
"That was a piker's trick—listening in on me, Dick," he remonstrated half-impatiently.
Pirates' Hope
Francis Lynde
"I called for a sport and drew a piker," Jim Searles retorted.
Cappy Ricks Retires
Peter B. Kyne
He thinks he's been a piker and that you and I are his first-assistant pikers.
Cappy Ricks Retires
Peter B. Kyne

British Dictionary definitions for piker

piker

noun slang

Australian a wild bullock

Australian and NZ a useless person; failure

US, Australian and NZ a lazy person; shirker

a mean person

Word Origin for piker

C19: perhaps related to pike ³

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for piker

"miserly person," 1872, formerly "poor migrant to California" (1860), earlier pike (1854), perhaps originally "vagrant who wanders the pike (n.1)" (which is the notion in Sussex dialectal piker "vagrant, tramp, gypsy," 1838), but Barnhart, OED and others suggest the American English word ultimately is a reference to people from Pike County, Missouri.