† suˈppositor Obs.
Also 6 -ar, -oure, 6–7 -er.
[Alteration of next after agent-nouns in -er, -or.]
= next.
| 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 55 A suppositar tempered with sope, larde, or the yolke of egges. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health xlii. 21 b, A naturall egestion, other by course of nature, or els by suppositors, or..other easy purgacions. 1564–78 W. Bullein Dial. agst. Pest. (1888) 50 The bodie must haue benefite by Purgation with Clister, or Suppositer. 1667 Dryden & Dk. Newcastle Sir M. Mar-all iv. i, Clysters, Suppositers, and a barbarous Pothecary's Bill. 1689 Walker Siege Derry 30 A piece of a Bladder in the shape of a Suppositor. |
| fig. 1607 Middleton Fam. Love iii. vi, A plague upon him for a Glister! he has given our loves a suppositor with a recumbentibus. 1638 Ford Fancies iii. i, Evermore fantastical, As being the suppositor to laughter; It hath sav'd charge in physic. |
¶ Used in the sense of ‘supporter’, ‘support’:
cf. suppositum,
suppost.
| 1628 Ford Lover's Mel. i. ii, Mountebanks, empirics, quack-salvers,..are all suppositors to the right worshipful doctor. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. xi. §10. 108 May not their twelve Houses of the Zodiack be..called so many Castles in the ayr? what reedish, nay strawy, suppositors doe they stand upon? |