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Definition of piker - 3 dictionary results

pik⋅er

  [pahy-ker]
Use piker in a Sentence
–noun Informal.
1. a person who does anything in a contemptibly small or cheap way.
2. a stingy, tight-fisted person; tightwad.
3. a person who gambles, speculates, etc., in a small, cautious way.
Origin:
1275–1325; ME: petty thief, equiv. to pik(en) to pick 1 + -er 1 ; cf. dial. (N England, Scots, Hiberno-E) pike to pick 1

Synonyms:
2. cheapskate, penny pincher, skinflint.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pik·er   (pī'kər)   
n.   Slang
  1. A cautious gambler.
  2. A person regarded as petty or stingy.

[Possibly from Piker, a poor migrant to California, after Pike County in eastern Missouri.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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piker 
"miserly person," 1872, formerly "poor migrant to California" (1860), earlier pike (1854), perhaps originally "vagrant who wanders the pike (1)" (which is the notion in Sussex dial. piker "vagrant, tramp, gypsy," 1838), but Barnhart and others say the Amer.Eng. word ultimately is a reference to people from Pike County, Missouri.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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