subs. phr. (common).—A SHARK (q.v.); a shabby swindling borrower.
1803. KENNEY, Raising the Wind. [Among the Dramatis Personæ, is JEREMY DIDDLER.]
1840. BULWER-LYTTON, Money, iv. 5. Blount. And he borrowed 700l. of me! Glossmore. And 600l. of me! Sir John. And 500l. of me! Stout. Oh! a regular Jeremy Diddler!
1843. THACKERAY, The Irish Sketch-Book, xiii. As for trade, there seemed to be none; a great JEREMY-DIDLER-kind of hotel stood hard by, swaggering and out at elbows.
1857. THACKERAY, The Virginians, xxxi. Poor JEREMY DIDDLER calls about eleven o’clock for another half-sovereign.
1895. St. James’s Gazette, 15 June, p. 13. Your deeply obliged, JEREMY-DIDDLER.
