Crossword clues for scalper
scalper
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Scalper \Scalper\ (sk[a^]lp"[~e]r), n.
One who, or that which, scalps.
(Surg.) Same as Scalping iron, under Scalping.
A broker who, dealing on his own account, tries to get a small and quick profit from slight fluctuations of the market. [Cant]
A person who buys and sells the unused parts of railroad tickets. [Cant]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1650s as a type of surgical instrument; 1760 as "one who removes scalps," agent noun from scalp (v.).\n
\nMeaning "person who re-sells tickets at unauthorized prices for a profit," 1869, American English; earliest reference is to theater tickets, but often used late 19c. of brokers who sold unused portions of railway tickets. [Railways charged less per mile for longer-distance tickets; therefore someone travelling from New York to Chicago could buy a ticket all the way to San Francisco, get out at Chicago and sell it to a scalper, and come away with more money than if he had simply bought a ticket to Chicago; the Chicago scalper would hold the ticket till he found someone looking for a ticket to San Francisco, then sell it to him at a slight advance, but for less than the official price.] Perhaps from scalp (v.); scalper was a generic term for "con man, cheater" in late 19c. Or perhaps the connecting sense is the bounty offered for scalps of certain destructive animals (attested in New England from 1703) and sometimes Indians (i.e., having only part of something, but still getting paid). Some, though, see a connection rather to scalpel, the surgical instrument.
Wiktionary
n. 1 One who scalps, or removes the scalp of another. 2 (context US English) One who scalps tickets to popular entertainment events: buying them in advance and then selling them (e.g. online or just outside the venue of the event), often at inflated prices 3 (context finance English) A person on an open outcry exchange trading floor who buys and sells rapidly for his or her own account, aiming to buy from a seller and a little later sell to a buyer, making a small profit from the difference (roughly the amount of the bid/offer spread, or less).
WordNet
n. someone who buys something and resells it at a price far above the initial cost; "he got theater tickets through a scalper"
Wikipedia
Scalper (born October 31, 1967), is a London-bred rapper, producer and songwriter of Pakistani descent, who is now based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Usage examples of "scalper".
On the way back from the Greenwood County Courthouse, he would pop in on his mother, who was at a nursing home along the way, or visit Sparky, a scalper who was holding tickets for a Hands game.
Security had been beefed up, but the scalpers were still busy at their trade.
Lawyers of a kind move about hustling clients in the subverted tones of scalpers, while the state defenders shout out the names of persons whom they have never met and whom they will be defending in a moment.
One of the hottest events of the Synod social season, tickets to the event were as scarce as hen's teeth and scalpers were obtaining record prices for the few still available.
Rumor had it that scalpers were already commanding fifty dollars a ticket, and we still had more than forty-eight hours to go.
When news of the second one spread, the merchants and ticket scalpers would find out how much of a damper death could put on their profits.
The Elshies have quite a way of handling people who cross them and they've already made it perfectly clear that scalpers will be handled severely.