dealer
(ˈdiːlə(r))
[f. deal v. + -er1.]
One who deals (in various senses of the verb).
1. a. One who divides, distributes, delivers.
| c 1000 ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 129 Diuisor, dælere. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 117 Delare, or he þat delythe, distributor, partitor. Delare, or grete almysse yevere, rogatorius. 1611 Cotgr., Distributeur, a distributor, dealer, diuider. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 3 The dealer of the death-wound to the spirit of Pharisaism was a Pharisee. |
b. spec. The player who distributes the cards.
| 1600 Rowlands Let. Humours Blood iii. 58 Make him but dealer..If you do finde good dealing, take his eares. 1673 Cotton Compl. Gamester in Singer Hist. Cards 345 Then the dealer..shuffling them, after cutting, deals to every one three apiece. 1878 H. H. Gibbs Ombre 19 The Dealer then deals nine cards to each player. |
2. One who has dealings with a person; one who deals in (a thing); † an agent, negotiator. Obs. in general sense except as transf. from next.
| c 1000 ælfric Deut. v. 5 Ic wæs dælere betwix Gode and eow. 1586 St. Trials, Q. Mary (R.), I was acquainted, I confess, with their practices, but I never did intend to be a dealer in them. c 1610 Sir J. Melvil Mem. (1735) 396 He was accused to have been a Dealer with the Earl of Bothwell. 1611 Cotgr., Agent, an Agent, a dealer, negotiator. 1727 De Foe Syst. Magic i. iv. (1840) 112 A sorcerer and enchanter, a witch, or dealer with the Devil. a 1745 Swift (J.), These small dealers in wit and learning. |
3. One who deals in merchandise, a trader; spec. one who sells articles in the same condition in which he has bought them; often in combination, as cattle-dealer, corn-dealer, horse-dealer, money-dealer.
| 1611 Cotgr., Trafiqueur, a trafficker, trader, marchant, occupier, dealer in the world. 1651 Davenant Gondibert i. iii. (R.), Such small money (though the people's gold With which they trade) great dealers skorne to take. 1745 De Foe's Eng. Tradesman Introd. (1841) I. 2 A very great number of considerable dealers, whom we call tradesmen. 1793 Capt. Bentinck in Ld. Auckland's Corr. (1862) III. 48 He is supplied with horses by some dealer in Town. 1848 Mill Pol. Econ. (1876) III. xi. §5. 315 Dealers in money (as lenders by profession are improperly called). 1891 Pall Mall G. 29 Oct. 2/1 Costers and hucksters and those not too particular buyers who are euphemistically known as ‘general dealers’. |
† 4. One who acts (in some specified manner) in his relation to others. Obs.
| 1547–64 Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) viii. i, Hypocrites and double dealers. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer i. H iij, An vntrue dealer, and a despiser of men. 1611 Bible Isa. xxi. 2 The treacherous dealer. 1677 Wycherley (title), The Plain Dealer. 1840 Thackeray Catherine i, What! call Peter Brock a double-dealer? |
5. A jobber on the Stock Exchange.
| 1719 Defoe Anat. Exchange-Alley 4 A young Dealer that has Money to lay out. 1837 Penny Mag. VI. 186/2 Dealers in bills purchase them either to get a commission, or in return for goods exported. 1870 Gentl. Mag. New Ser. V. 484 The dealers were almost unable to sell stock of any kind. 1890 Cassell's Sat. Jrnl. June 724/3 A jobber was engaged in ‘banging’ the market... Another dealer saw through the trick. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 23/2 Much of the work of the Stock Exchange account is carried out by a department of that institution corresponding to the bankers' clearing house. Its function is to bring into direct communication the ultimate buyer and the ultimate seller as represented by their respective brokers, thus eliminating, for the purposes of the settlement, the middleman known as the ‘dealer’ or ‘jobber’. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 25 Mar. 9/3 Those dozens of other dealers are on the look-out for orders from brokers whose clientèle lies amongst the great body of the public. 1970 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 259/1 Dealers or jobbers in these securities take up their posts in this space every day, and dealers in other classes of securities similarly occupy the floor space allotted to their particular markets. |
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▸ a. With modifying word, as dope, heroin, cocaine, etc. A person who sells the kind of illegal drug specified. Cf. drug dealer n. (b) at drug n.1 Additions.
| 1901 Davenport (Iowa) Daily Leader 27 Feb. 1 (heading) Dope dealer..peddler of Morphine makes big money in his trade. 1937 Jrnl. Criminal Law 27 856 It has been observed that the racketeering mode of life is not confined to the heroin-dealer. 1975 H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang Suppl. 747/2 The 1972 motion picture Super Fly, about a cocaine dealer in Harlem. 1997 H. Kureishi Love in Blue Time 4 Kara had found him..with a smack dealer, though he claimed to have given that up. |
b. A person who sells illegal drugs.
| 1951 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Tribune 14 June 5/3 We should execute the dealer who is not himself a drug addict. 1976 R. Sabbag Snow Blind v. 81 A dealer dealing in quantity, buying and selling kilos (of cocaine), will hit his product with borax, because it is extremely heavy. 1993 Guardian 16 Oct. 6/2 An article by a former senior drugs squad officer arguing for legalisation as a way of removing the dealer's power base. 2005 N. Barham Dis/Connected 147 You can be prosecuted for being a dealer if you sort out a few mates. |