punter

plural punters

1. One who rows or poles a punt or pontoon.

plural punters

1. One who punts a football.
2. InternetA program used to forcibly disconnect another user from a chat room.

   Punters generate hundreds of information inquiries to a legitimate user's client, such as invitations to chat. […] The user is punted from the channel, and must rejoin to gain access.

   2001, Roger A. Grimes, Malicious Mobile Code: Virus Protection for Windows, page 236

plural punters

1. One who bets against the bank.
2. CommonwealthIrelandUKslangOne who gambles or bets.

   Punters know the house usually wins, but most have no idea that bookies sharpen their edge via something called “stake factoring”, the process by which winning customers are dialled down, while losers are allowed to bet more.

   2022 February 19, Rob Davies, “Revealed: how bookies clamp down on successful gamblers and exploit the rest”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   […] and having only peeped into a play-room at Baden-Baden when he hung on Dobbin's arm, and where, of course, he was not permitted to gamble, came eagerly to this part of the entertainment and hankered round the tables where the croupiers and the punters were at work.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 574

   By Savernake the train was 4½min early; we then had the thrill of sweeping through Newbury at 95 m.p.h.—and one wonders if any of the punters on the neighbouring racecourse had any eyes for our flying cavalcade as we swept by, for it was a race day—[…].

   1964 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 387

3. CommonwealthIrelandUKslangA customer of a commercial establishment, frequently of a pub or (alternatively) of a prostitute.

   I was doing the Jonathan Lowrie death tour with half a dozen or so punters.

   2000 February 5, Douglas Watkinson et al., “Beyond the Grave”, in Midsomer Murders

   3 more examples

   She's working the streets like she does every night Pulling in punters left and right

   2007, “Suzanne”, in Paint it Blacker, performed by Plan B

   Everybody knows your mum is a whore / Getting 'round Piccadilly looking for willy / Punters pull up and say "don't be silly"

   2016 March 7, “Road Rage (Freestyle)”, performed by Little T (Josh Tate)

   The number of UK pubs is falling and there is less consensus about how punters should behave. Here’s a guide to getting the most out of a trip to the boozer[.]

   2018 June 6, Tony Naylor, “The new rules of pub etiquette: don't flirt with bar staff or steal the glasses”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: pubgoer, pubber, all-nighter, curb crawler, fare, gonk, jane, Jane

4. climbingA beginner or unskilled climber.
5. The person who keeps score in basset or ombre.
6. ScotlandA person who trades with a gang but is not a gang member.

   He had stolen 'trannies' (transistor radios) and hub caps from cars outside the main hotels in Glasgow, turning the collection into money through dealing with a 'punter' at Charing Cross.

   2013, James Patrick, A Glasgow Gang Observed