▪ I. tinkler1 Sc. and dial.
(ˈtɪŋklə(r))
[app. f. tinker, with different suffix: cf. pedder, peddler, pedlar.]
A tinker, or worker in metal; in Scotland, north of England, and Ireland, usually a gipsy, or other itinerant mender of pots, pans, and metal-work.
| c 1175 Carta Willelmi Regis in Liber Ecclesie de Scon (1843) 30 [Terra] que iacet inter terram serlon incisoris et terram Jacobi tinkler. 1484 Nottingham Rec. II. 346 Christoferus Tynkeler,..tynkeler. 1570 Levins Manip. 77/12 A Tinkler, [sartor ærarius]. 1572 Satir. Poems Reform. xxxii. 49 We Tinklaris, Tailȝeouris... We wait of nocht bot mekill cair and cummer. 1605 N. Riding Rec. (1884) I. 3 Joh. Jackson, tinkler. 1681 O. Heywood Diaries, etc. (1881) II. 228 Her mother brought a panne to a tinkler's house. 1785 Burns Jolly Beggars Air vi, My bonnie lass, I work in brass, A tinkler is my station. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xlix, This fellow had been originally a tinkler, or ‘caird’, many of whom stroll about these districts. 1825 Brockett N.C. Words s.v., The celebrated Wull Allen was for many years the king of the tinklers in the North. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre xviii, She looks such a tinkler. 1911 19th Cent. Sept. 546 These wandering cairds or ‘tinklers’ had four separate languages at their command. |
| attrib. 1786 Burns Twa Dogs 18 Ev'n wi' a tinkler-gipsey's messan. 1787 ― ‘When Guilford good’ v, An' Charlie Fox threw by his box, An' lows'd his tinkler jaw, man. |
▪ II. ˈtinkler2
[f. tinkle v.1 + -er1.]
That which tinkles; esp. a descriptive name for a small bell, etc. (in slang = ‘bell’); in quot. 1600, a name for some base coin.
| 1600 Stirling Kirk Sess. Reg. (Bann. Cl.) 133 Ane great part of the almus gevin to the Pure is fals cunȝie callit Tinklaris. 1767 A. Seward Let. in Poet. Wks. (1810) I. 195 A Spinnet.., the little tinkler is a wretched substitute for my dear harpsichord. 1787 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ode upon Ode Wks. 1812 I. 419 Thus when the Oxford Bell, baptized Great Tom, Shakes all the city with his iron tongue, The little Tinklers might as well be dumb. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xxv, ‘Hark!’ cried the Dodger at this moment, ‘I heard the tinkler’. 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour iii, Giving the little tinkler of a bell a pull as he spoke. 1901 R. Anderson Hist. Kilsyth vii. 65 The old ‘tinkler’ which..had done service in the belfry of the disused church. |
b. A person who tinkles; a rimester.
| 1731 A. Hill Adv. Poets xxii, But, ah! far short th' unsolid Tinklers rise; Nor soar, but flutter, in the Muse's Skies. |