Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as costermonger.
  • noun Eccles., the side hangings of an altar.
  • noun A piece of tapestry or carpeting used as a small hanging, as the valance of a bed, the hanging border of a tablecloth, and the like.
  • noun Also called costering.

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

  • noun One who hawks about fruit, green vegetables, fish, etc.

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

  • noun A costermonger

Etymologies

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Examples

  • So a coster is twice as likely to lose his reason as a soldier, and five times as likely as a farmer.

    SUICIDE 2010

  • So a coster is twice as likely to lose his reason as a soldier, and five times as likely as

    Suicide 1903

  • "coster" -- "drawing him," while Horace Mayhew took down everything the man said.

    The History of "Punch" M. H. Spielmann

  • I feel as if my life and my eternal happiness depend upon my emulating a wild Indian, or a London 'coster' boy.

    Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 Various

  • Another star of the halls, Albert Chevalier, sang "coster" songs, inaugurating the "pearly king" costume that would become a London staple, warbling: "Knock 'em in the Old Kent Road."

    Film | guardian.co.uk 2009

  • We fought a lot, and while the emotional roller coster was sometimes exhilarating, it had grown tiresome.

    How many clues does one need to give an overly sexy dresser? 2011

  • She smiled into the Virgin's eyes, and that lady delivered herself of a coster ballad with more art than she was aware.

    CHAPTER 20 2010

  • When it was over, and Mugridge was back in the galley, he became greasily radiant, and went about his work, humming coster songs in a nerve-racking and discordant falsetto.

    Chapter 6 2010

  • (Whatever they're up to, they'll probably try to do the same for whatever the revamped moon program is, so need to pay attention - seems to be a big coster with high potential for bigtime overruns).

    Augustine Panel Members Identified - NASA Watch 2009

  • I enjoyed it the first time as a pure emotional roller-coster ride, now I enjoy it as movie about something “more” then that - as a movie that actually has something to say about the medium and the genre itself, instead of just offering us an hour and a half of suspense.

    Eric’s Top 10 Worst Twist Endings » Scene-Stealers 2008

Comments

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  • What is monged by a costermonger.

    May 17, 2008

  • Also, someone who attacks his parents.

    August 20, 2008

  • The OED also gives (as obsolete): 'A hanging for a bed, the walls of a room, etc.'

    September 25, 2008

  • When the coster's finished jumping on his mother,

    He loves to lie a-basking in the sun.

    Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911), Pirates of Penzance

    September 20, 2009

  • Scots. A piece of arable land.

    May 10, 2011