subs. (thieves’).—A card-sharper’s decoy: see BUTTON, subs., sense 2.
1841. Blackwood’s Magazine, L., 302. BUTTONERS are those accomplices of thimble-riggers … whose duty it is to act as flat-catchers, or decoys, by personating flats.
1857. SNOWDEN, Magistrates Assistant (3 ed.), 446. To entice another to play—BUTTONER.
1860. Cornhill Magazine, II., 334. Enticer of another to play—BUTTONER.
