Definition of "crusher"

[…] for unless a matter be true enough to stand a good deal of misrepresentation, its truth is not of a very robust order, and the blame will rather lie with its own delicacy than with the carelessness of the crusher.

1878, Samuel Butler, Life and Habit, London: Trübner & Co., page 1

Woe unto every backbiter, slanderer, who has gathered riches and counted them over thinking his riches have made him immortal! ¶ No indeed, he shall be thrust into the Crusher, and what shall teach thee what is the Crusher?

1955 , “The Backbiter”, in Arthur J. Arberry, transl., The Koran Interpreted, page 664

Anything about the police sets them a talking at once. […] 'The blessed crushers are everywhere,' shouted one. 'I wish I'd been there to have had a shy at the eslops,' said another. And then a man sung out: 'O, don't I like the Bobbys?'

1851, Henry Mayhew, “The Literature of Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor‎, volume 1, page 25

Back in the lobby he bought a copy of Time but didn't like the way the plain-clothes crushers looked at him, and left.

1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 110

“She is a crusher, ain’t she now!” Mr. Foker asked of his companion.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 4, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850