stroker

English

Etymology tree

English stroke

English -er

English stroker

From stroke + -er.

stroker (plural strokers)

One who strokes.
Something with which to stroke.
(slang) A four-stroke engine or by extension the vehicle itself; especially a motorcycle, as opposed to a two-stroke motorcycle (smoker).
(slang, derogatory) A masturbator.
(slang, derogatory) A loser.
(slang, derogatory) A criminal, a trickster.
(obsolete) A person who cures illnesses (especially scrofula, ) by stroking the sufferer. [16^th to 17^th century.]
- 1670, anonymous author, “The Cloud Opened: Or, The English Hero”, in The Harleian Miscellany‎^[1], volume 4, published 1745, page 153:
  The bold Folly of Stroakers may seem a Mocking of Majesty, and the Intrenching on that Prerogative, which, conferred by a St. Edward the Confessor, and a Saint Lewis, on the Kings of England and France, to cure by Touch, must be reputed Sacred, such a Jewel as cannot be alienated from a Crown.
- 1691, John Dunton, chapter 6, in A Voyage Round the World‎^[2], page 112:
  […] never did any person address themselves to him for cure in those forementioned accidents, but he cured ’em one and all as fast as they'd come near him; so that not Greatrix himself that wonder-working Stroker ever groped away the Gout or Kings Evil more infallibly than this dear Father,