Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BRO'KER, n. [from Broke.]

1. An agent or negotiator, who is employed by merchants to make and conclude bargains for them, for a fee or rate per cent, or who transacts other business for his employers. Brokers are of several kinds. #1. Exchange-brokers, who make and conclude bargains for others in matters of money or merchandise, learn the rate of exchange and notify their employers. #2. Stock-brokers, who are employed to buy and sell shares in the stocks, whether of the public funds, of banks, or of other corporations. #3. Pawn-brokers, who make it their business to lend money upon pawns, that is, property deposited in pledge. #4. Insurance-brokers, whose business is to procure the insurance of vessels at sea or bound on a voyage. In the United States, the business of a stock-broker and an insurance-broker is often or generally carried on by the same person.
2. One who deals in old household goods. – Johnson.
3. A pimp or procurer. – Shak. Johnson. [In the two latter senses, the word, I believe, is never used in America, unless in cant language.]