Meanings of spiv (spivs) in English

No football club in those days was sponsored but the spivs were talking such revolution.

Cable had said the government would prevent the shares from going to "spivs and speculators".

Short sellers are routinely portrayed as greedy and unethical spivs who profit from the misfortunes of others.

They got rich because, other than spivs and gamblers, they enjoyed their work and were good at it.

The prime minister, the future king of England, the team's most iconic player forced to play breakfast-time footsie with spivs in suits.

Tickets include the provision of suitable raiment for the "spivs" who patronised these junketings and for their low-born, slap-and-tickle prey.

Even in wartime, crime soared with a thriving antisocial black market -though, in postwar austerity, spivs defying rationing seemed glamorous not villainous.

Salmond has spoken of laws to control short-selling spivs and speculators, but since Scotland has no international stock exchange, that would be Westminster's job.

The inexperienced educated elite have replaced London's sharp-eyed 'spivs' and 'barrow-boys' whose roots were in the street and whose deals were cut in person.

The short sellers, or "spivs and speculators" could have been fought off, he believes, by determined government action to protect the integrity of HBOS.

The first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, has laid into the "spivs and speculators" who allegedly brought Halifax Bank of Scotland to its knees.

The man's Barry McGuigan-style moustache gives the image a slight spiv feel.

Certainly he can do spiv better than almost anyone else.

Randsome looked like a hobo, while Wilson looked like an American version of a spiv.

If he flashed money on the spot, he could seem like a spiv or a wide-boy.

Private Walker, the spiv with a jacket lining filled with watches and a breast pocket teeming with ladies' nylons?