fixer

Noun

1. Agent noun of fix: one who, or that which, fixes.
2. A chemical (sodium thiosulfate) used in photographic development that fixes the image in place, preventing further chemical reactions.
   • The fixer removes the undeveloped silver salts from the film, rendering it no longer sensitive to light. Pour the fixer — at a temperature within plus or minus 5° F of the developer's — into the tank, using the amount...
3. A person who serves as an agent to arrange for a desired result, perhaps by improper and/or unlawful means.
4. Someone who is often paid that helps a customer cut through red tape, especially for government processes or applications.
5. A person who arranges immunity for defendants by tampering with the justice system via bribery or extortion, especially as a business endeavor for profit.
   • A professional bank robber commented on this [a point in the thief's memoir]: 'Perhaps the author means by this that the fixer with whom he is acquainted works only on crimes not involving violence. It is true that...
6. A person who assists foreign journalists in volatile countries, often providing interpretation, personal connections, and transportation services.
   • Yet at the same time, this is also the source of what journalists see as one of the major risks involved in dependence on the fixer: the fixer may determine, to some extent, what the journalist sees. It is at this point...
7. A fixer-upper.
8. A drug dealer or user.
   • He'd say things like, “Now, I don’t want you in Harlem!” He was afraid I'd meet the wrong people in Harlem; fixers, junkies, people like that. - 1969 October 27, Lew Alcindor, Jack Olsen, “My Story”, in Sports...