intermeddler
(ɪntəˈmɛdlə(r))
Also 7 enter-.
[f. as prec. + -er1.]
One who intermeddles. † a. One who concerns himself or has to do with something. Obs. in gen. sense.
| 1576 Humphrey Let. to Ld. Burghley in Strype Ann. Ref. (1824) I. App. xxviii. 518 Wherin I was no open intermedler, but only a private solicitor. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 12 When they come to be citizens, and intermedlers in matters of the common welth. |
† b. An intermediary. Obs.
| 1630 S. Lennard tr. Charron's Wisd. (1658) 49 It is the great Intermedler and Huckster, by it we traffick. 1886 Law Times LXXX. 168/2 Before that time attorneys-at-law were not recognised as legal intermeddlers. |
c. spec. One who meddles or interferes with what is none of his business; a meddler; in early use = interloper.
| 1601 J. Wheeler Treat. Comm. 11 With an expresse restraint of all Straglers and Entermedlers, that might disturbe, or impeach their trade. 1611 Cotgr., Entremetteur,..an intermedler, or dealer in other mens causes, or controuersies. 16.. R. L'Estrange (J.), There's hardly a greater pest to government and families, than officious tale-bearers, and busy intermeddlers. 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 130 Busy bodies and intermeddlers are a dangerous sort of people to have to do withal. 1876 Black Madcap V. xxv. 236 You know, Violet, what intermeddlers get as a rule. |