† high runnern.
Obsolete (historical after early 18th cent.).
A die fixed so as to turn up high numbers; = high man n. Also figurative. Usually in plural.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > games of chance > dice-playing > [noun] > die or dice > false or loaded
stop-dice1540
bar1545
flat1545
gourd1545
barred dicec1555
bristle-dicec1555
fulhamc1555
graviersc1555
high manc1555
langretc1555
low manc1555
cheat1567
dice of vantage?1577
demy1591
forger1591
squarier1592
tallmen?1592
stop cater trey1605
demi-bar1606
downhill1664
high runner1670
low runner1670
doctor1688
tat1688
uphill1699
cut1711
loaded dice1771
dispatcher1798
dispatch1819
miss-out1928
1670 C. Cotton tr. G. Girard Hist. Life Duke of Espernon ii. v. 235 False Dice..the high, and the low runners [Fr. le fort et le foible].
1674 C. Cotton Compl. Gamester xxxiii. 167 High runners are most requisite for this Game [sc. passage], such as will rarely run any other chance than four, five, or six, by which means if the Caster throws Doublets he scarcely can throw out.
1712 J. Dennis Ess. Shakespear 38 The Rhetorical Author..makes use of his Tropes and Figures, which are his High and Low-runners, to cheat us.
1859 J. O. Halliwell & T. Wright Nares's Gloss. (new ed.) I. In later times, these [sc. high men] had attained the name of high runners.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2014; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
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n.1670