juggler

noun

1. (agent, form-of)Agent noun of juggle; one who either literally juggles objects, or figuratively juggles tasks.

   “Baraka was part trickster and part provocateur, a brilliant juggler of genres, ideas, and identities, whose career spanned nearly six decades.”

   “2016, Jule Scherer, “Going out for the first time as a mum,” stuff.co.nz, 15 March, 2016, Since the babies were born I’ve turned into a 24/7 milking machine, a bilingual nursery-rhyme jukebox, a prolific laundress, a bum-wiping wizard, a baby juggler and two-armed synchronised cuddler.”

2. A person who practices juggling (trick of throwing and catching balls or similar).

   “Coming forward and seating himself on the ground in his white dress and tightened turban, the chief of the Indian Jugglers begins with tossing up two brass balls, which is what any of us could do, and concludes with keeping up four at the same time, which is what none of us could do to save our lives, nor if we were to take our whole lives to do it in.”

   “The waiters, commanded by Jules, moved softly across the thick Oriental rugs, balancing their trays with the dexterity of jugglers, and receiving and executing orders with that air of profound importance of which only really first-class waiters have the secret.”

   “Only when a juggler misses catching his ball does he appeal to me.”

3. (obsolete)A person who performs tricks using sleight of hand, a conjurer, prestidigitator.

   “They ſay this tovvne is full of coſenage: / As nimble Iuglers that deceiue the eie: / Darke vvorking Sorcerers that change the minde: / Soule-killing VVitches, that deforme the bodie: […]”

   “[…] Along with them / They brought one Pinch, a hungry lean-faced villain, / A mere anatomy, a mountebank, / A threadbare juggler and a fortune-teller, / A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch, / A dead-looking man: this pernicious slave, / Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer […]”

   “And such captious ſubtleties do indeed often puzzle and ſometimes ſilence men, but rarely ſatisfy them. Being like the tricks of Jugglers, vvhereby men doubt not but they are cheated, though oftentimes they cannot declare by vvhat ſlights they are impoſed on.”

   “Come hither Filch. I am as fond of this Child, as though my Mind miſgave me he vvere my ovvn. He hath as fine a Hand at picking a Pocket as a VVWoman, and is as nimble-finger’d as a Juggler.”

   “Doubtless the pleasure is as great / In being cheated, as to cheat. / As lookers-on find most delight, / Who least perceive the juggler’s sleight; / And still the less they understand, / The more admire the sleight of hand.”

4. (dated)A magician or wizard.

   “So far we may follow the 'clerk,' but he subsequently shows himself to be a juggler, and not a worker by regular natural science.”

   “The contents of the Sūtra is a legend of a juggler Bhadra. Bhadra, due to his magical tricks, intended to deceive the Buddha and invited him to a magic feast which was charmed into being on a refuse dump.”

   “This time he accidentally takes a juggler's magic ball and embarks on a successful career as a street entertainer. Every time he throws the red ball into the air, the ball multiplies, and magical scenes appear on them.”

   “Brauner transforms the Juggler's magic wand into a lunar-solar scepter to symbolize the reunion of opposites, to set up a confrontation of masculine and feminine principles, and to announce their alchemical fusion.”

5. (alt-of, misspelling)Misspelling of jugular.

   “The defensive system they were playing hampered them from going for the juggler.”

   “[They] declare that Kashmir is their juggler vein.”