[f. SWAG v. or sb. + -ER1.]
I. 1. One who causes a thing to ‘swag’ or sway.
1653. Urquhart, trans. Rabelais, I. ii. 17. The swagger who th’ alarum bell holds out [orig. Le brimbaleur qui tient le cocquemart].
II. 2. Austral. One who carries a swag; a swagman.
1855. Melbourne Argus, 19 Jan., 6/1. We have observed a great influx of swaggers lately—all seemingly bound for Smith’s Creek.
1904. Lady Broome, Colonial Mem., 33. I wonder if ‘swaggers’ have been improved off the face of the country districts of New Zealand? Tramps one would perhaps have called them in England, and yet they were hardly tramps so much as men of a roving disposition, who wandered about asking for work, and they really could and did work if wanted.
