seedsman
(ˈsiːdsmən)
[f. genitive of seed n. + man n.1 Cf. seedman.]
1. A sower of seed.
| 1601 Holland Pliny xviii. xiii. I. 571 Moreover, they would haue the seeds-man to be naked when he soweth them. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. vii. 24. 1657 J. Watts Scribe, Pharisee, etc. i. 115 A plain and ordinary man, a Plough-man and Seedsman. 1764 J. Randall in Gentl. Mag. XXXIV. 515/1 The seedsman can easily lift it [sc. the seed plough] up by the handles, even when the hopper is quite full. 1787 Burns Song, ‘Again rejoicing Nature sees’ iii, The merry Plough-boy cheers his team, Wi' joy the tentie Seedsman stalks. 1854 M. Howitt Pict. Calendar 107 A..train of ploughmen and seedsmen preparing the ground for fresh harvests. 1882 J. Walker Jaunt to Auld Reekie, etc. 24 The seedsman had scattered the handfu's abroad. |
| fig. 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse K 2, The second kind of Diuels..called..the authors of massacres, & seedsmen of mischiefe. 1726 Penn Tracts Wks. I. 537 It is granted by all that I know of, that the Seeds-Man is Christ. 1833 Tennyson Poems 123 The seedsman, memory, Sowed my deepfurrowed thought with many a name [etc.]. |
2. A dealer in seed.
| 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 33 note, The Wife of..Bury, a Seeds-man, living at the Frying-pan in Newgate Market. 1742 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 3) I. 162 From this Place also the Seedsmen in London are furnished with the greatest Quantity of their Seeds. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Nov. 443 The ground would be sufficiently filled with roots, not to be purchased in the seedsman's shop. 1891 S. C. Scrivener Our Fields & Cities 148 Eliminate the stimulus given by manufacturers of implements, of artificial manures, and by the numerous competing seedsmen, and our agricultural shows would simply be a series of cattle fairs. |