spieler

• shpieler, speiler

From German Spieler (“player, gambler”) or from spiel.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈspiːlə/

• Audio (Southern England):

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spieler (plural spielers)

1. (slang, now chiefly Australia, New Zealand) A swindler, a gambler.
   • 1891, Banjo Paterson, An Evening in Dandaloo:

     That a crowd of Sydney stealers,
     Jockeys, pugilists and spielers
     Brought some horses, real heelers,
     Came and put us through.

   • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 228:

     ‘A spieler,’ Leah gently loosened the painful crab hold of the boy's hand. ‘ […] A trickster. A quandong. A ripperty man. A con-man.’

2. A gambling club.
3. A person who speaks fluently and glibly; a barker.
   • 1908 September – 1909 September, Jack London, chapter 31, in Martin Eden, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published September 1909, →OCLC:

     "Bosco! He eats 'em alive! Eats 'em alive!" Brissenden exclaimed, imitating the spieler of a locally famous snake-eater.

   • 1961, Vincent F. Seyfried, The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part I:

     Two thousand men, women and children turned out for this giant excursion and danced and drank the day away while professional spielers extolled the virtues of the new metropolis and inveigled the unwary into investment.

4. (Canada, US, broadcasting, informal) A radio or television announcer.

• spiel

• “spieler”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• Eric Partridge (2005) “spieler”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 2 (J–Z), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1833.

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