ˈventurer
Also 6 venterer, -our.
[f. venture v. Cf. adventurer and It. venturiere.]
1. One who ventures, in various senses; an adventurer.
| 1530 Palsgr. 284/2 Venturer on the lande, aduenturier. Ibid., Venturer on the see, piratte. 1538 Tonstall Serm. Palm Sund. (1823) 67 To make this realme a praye to al venturers, al spoylers,..all rauenours of the worlde. a 1560 T. Phaer æneid x. (1562) G gij b, Fortune is frend to venturers, and cowards hateth most. a 1631 Donne Poems (1635) 274 No family Ere rigg'd a soule..With whom more Venturers more boldly dare Venture their states. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia Pref. a 6, Lastly for Detraction and Censure..it is more my scorn than feare, and ought to be to any Venturer abroad into publike view. 1727 in Bailey (vol. II). 1841 Dickens Barn. Rudge xxviii, A visit to the gaming-table—not as a heated, anxious venturer, but [etc.]. 1863 Kinglake Crimea I. 447 The next night Prince Louis Bonaparte and his fellow venturers destroyed the French republic. 1872 O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. vii, No Arctic venturer on the waveless sea Feels the dread stillness [etc.]. |
| fig. 1624 Donne Serm. (1649) II. xlix. 463 Was God a venturer with me in my sinne? |
| transf. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 201 Airy leaves of woodbine..Are earliest venturers to unfold their buds. |
† b. (See
quot.)
Obs.—1| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 129 The venturers with the sword were 60. thousand in number [marg., Gli Venturieri da spada, are a kind of venturing souldiers, who commonly are wont to folow the army in hope of the spoile.]. |
2. One who undertakes or shares in a commercial or trading venture,
esp. by sending goods or ships beyond seas; a merchant-venturer.
| 1557 Recorde Whetst. a ij, The gouerners, Consulles, and the reste of the companie of venturers into Moscouia. 1593 R. Harvey Philad. 3 What traffique should a venturer haue [etc.]. 1621–3 Middleton & Rowley Changeling i. i, I meant to be a venturer in this voyage. 1632 Massinger City Madam i. iii, You were..the main venturer In every ship that launched forth. 1661 Webster Cure for Cuckold iii. iii, This beginning May make us of small venturers to become Hereafter wealthy merchants. 1844 Kinglake Eothen vi. 88 The great Capitalist whose imperial sway is more withering than despotism itself, to the enterprises of humble venturers. |
† 3. A strumpet or prostitute.
Cf. venture n. 8.
Obs.—1| 1607 Dekker & Webster Westw. Hoe ii. ii, Mist. Just. Had thy Circæan Magick me transformd..that I were turn'd common Venturer, I could not loue this old man. |