digger

/dig"euhr/, n.

1. a person or an animal that digs.

2. a tool, part of a machine, etc., for digging.

3. (cap.) Also called Digger Indian. a member of any of several Indian peoples of western North America, esp. of a tribe that dug roots for food.

4. an Australian or New Zealand soldier of World War I.

5. (cap.) Eng. Hist. a member of a group that advocated the abolition of private property and began in 1649 to cultivate certain common lands.

6. Slang. a person hired by a scalper to buy tickets to a show or performance for resale by the scalper at inflated prices.

[1400-50; late ME; see DIG¹, -ER¹]

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▪ English agrarian movement

      any of a group of agrarian communists who flourished in England in 1649–50 and were led by Gerrard Winstanley (Winstanley, Gerrard) (q.v.) and William Everard. In April 1649 about 20 poor men assembled at St. George's Hill, Surrey, and began to cultivate the common land. These Diggers held that the English Civil Wars had been fought against the king and the great landowners; now that Charles I had been executed, land should be made available for the very poor to cultivate. (Food prices had reached record heights in the late 1640s.) The numbers of the Diggers more than doubled during 1649. Their activities alarmed the Commonwealth government and roused the hostility of local landowners, who were rival claimants to the common lands. The Diggers were harassed by legal actions and mob violence, and by the end of March 1650 their colony was dispersed. The Diggers themselves abjured the use of force. The Diggers also called themselves True Levelers (Leveler), but their communism was denounced by the leaders of the Levelers.

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