▪ I. grunter1
(ˈgrʌntə(r))
[f. grunt v. + -er1.]
1. An animal or person that grunts; esp. a pig.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 217/2 Gruntare, grunnitor. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Grunidor, a grunter. 1641 Brome Joviall Crew ii. (1652) F 3, Here's Grunter and Bleater, with Tib of the Butt'ry. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Grunter's gig, a smoaked hog's face. 1798 Bloomfield Farmer's Boy, Summer 248 Whose [the Gander's] nibbling warfare on the grunter's side, Is welcome pleasure to his bristly hide. 1820 Scott Ivanhoe i, Collecting the refractory grunters. 1847 Tennyson Princ. v. 26 1853 Hickie tr. Aristoph. (1887) I. 33 For how much shall I buy your little grunters of you? 1889 Farrar Lives Fathers II. xii. 348 Jerome has no name for him but the ‘grunter’. |
b. (See quots.)
| 1831 Youatt Horse x. 196 Every horse violently exercised on a full stomach, or when overloaded with fat, will grunt very much like a hog..But there are some horses who will at all times utter this sound, if suddenly touched with the whip or spur. They are called grunters, and should be avoided. 1888 W. Williams Princ. Vet. Med. (ed. 5) 553 If a horse when struck at or suddenly moved, emits, during expiration, a grunting sound, it is called a ‘grunter’. |
2. Used as a name for various fishes making a grunting noise; cf. grunt n. 3.
| 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 55 All their bays and creeks are well stock'd with mullets, large rays, grunters, cavallies, and drum-fish. 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Grunter, one of the popular names of the fish called by naturalists the Banded Drum. |
3. slang. a. A shilling (? obs.) or a sixpence. b. A policeman.
| a. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Grunter, a shilling. 1858 A. Mayhew Paved with Gold iii. iii. 267 One of the men..had only taken three ‘twelvers’ and a ‘grunter’. |
| b. 1823 Egan Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Grunters, traps, officers of justice. |
▪ II. grunter2
(ˈgrʌntə(r))
(See quot.)
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Grunter, an iron rod bent like a hook, used by iron founders. 1875 in Knight Dict. Mech. |