Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who sorns; one who obtrudes himself on another for bed and board; in Scots law, one who takes lodging and food from others by force or menaces without paying for it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Scot. One who obtrudes himself on another for bed and board.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Scotland One who obtrudes himself on another for bed and board.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • "Ye wad hae the impidence to deman 'my warrant, ye young sorner!" cried Bykes indignantly.

    Malcolm George MacDonald 1864

  • Visitor arriving in a good hour! fortunate sorner, to be thereafter blessed of all men!

    Royal Edinburgh Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets George Reid 1862

  • I am thinking, however, that for all they cry against them, the poor rates are but a small evil, since they keep the poor folk in such food and raiment, and out of the temptations to thievery; indeed, such a thing as a common beggar is not to be seen in this land, excepting here and there a sorner or a ne'er-do-weel.

    The Ayrshire Legatees, or, the Pringle family John Galt 1809

  • But it seems you are more willing to take the word of an old gray sorner, whose life has been spent in pattering heresy, than mine, though I never rode a foray in my life without duly saying my paternoster.”

    The Monastery 2008

  • But it seems you are more willing to take the word of an old gray sorner, whose life has been spent in pattering heresy, than mine, though I never rode a foray in my life without duly saying my paternoster. "

    The Monastery Walter Scott 1801

Comments

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  • A beggar.

    May 10, 2011

  • Watch out for that little Jack Horner

    With plums on his thumbs in the corner.

    When Muffet’s astray

    From curds and her whey

    He’ll snatch ‘em, the wretched wee sorner.

    August 6, 2018