highbinder

• high-binder

From the name of a nativist gang that flourished in New York City in the early 19th century, possibly an alteration of hide + binder.

highbinder (plural highbinders)

1. (US, obsolete) A ruffian, especially one of a gang.
2. (US, obsolete) A member of one of several Chinese criminal gangs associated with illegal immigration and prostitution.
3. (US, dated) A swindler, especially a corrupt politician.
   • 1903, Alfred Henry Lewis, The boss, and how he came to rule New York, page 177:

     Well, I sent for him not an hour ago; he's goin' to take copies of th' accounts that show what th' Chief an' them other highbinders at the top o' Tammany have been doin'.

   • 1906, “The Election”, in The Arena, page 652:

     Is it strange that every trust magnate, every corporation highbinder, every great Wall-street gambler and upholder of predatory and privileged wealth, and all their journals, are mutual in their praise of this Handy Andy of Mr. Ryan and his like among the Wall-street exploiters of the people?

   • 1916, Everybody's magazine, page 388:

     "Find out what these highbinders from Albany are up to," city editors up and down the Row were presently instructing reporters.

   • 1953 August 24, “Laughing HorsesT”, in LIFE, volume 35, number 8, page 36:

     the most elaborate conspiracy since the Derby scandal of 1844 when a group of 19th century highbinders arranged for the substitution of speedy Maccabeus for a slower 3-year- old named Running Rein.

   • 2003, Jim Morris, Fighting Men, page 189:

     I had become one of the people I envied, and I now envied a higher level of sharpers and highbinders.

• hellbender

• Paul A. Gilje (1987) The road to mobocracy: popular disorder in New York City, 1763-1834, Institute of Early American History and Culture (Williamsburg, Va.), page 130: “On Christmas Eve 1806, about fifty men, calling themselves Highbinders, gathered outside the Catholic church on ... These Highbinders, labeled by one newspaper "a desperate association of lawless and unprincipled vagabonds,"”