ˈpingler Obs. or dial.
[f. prec. II + -er1.]
1. A trifler, dallier, dabbler. (In quot. opposed to courser, runner, one who runs in a race.)
[Conjectured by Nares to mean ‘a labouring horse kept by a farmer in his homestead’, from pingle n.2 Hence Ogilvie (and Century Dict.) ‘a cart-horse, a workhorse’.]
| 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 109 Judging all to be clownes which be no courtiers, and al to be pinglers that be not coursers. |
2. One who ‘pingles’ with food or drink.
| 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. (Percy Soc.) 48 If I cannot drinke it downe..let me be counted nobody, a pingler. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 412 He filleth his mouth well, and is no pingler at his meat. 1657 M. Lawrence Use & Pract. Faith 206 Men that are..declining..are but pinglers at their meat. |