costermonger

[ kos-ter-mong-ger, -muhng-, kaw-ster- ]
See synonyms for costermonger on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Also called cos·ter [kos-ter, kaw-ster] /ˈkɒs tər, ˈkɔ stər/ . a hawker of fruit, vegetables, fish, etc.

verb (used without object)
  1. to sell fruit, vegetables, fish, etc., from a cart, barrow, or stall in the streets.

Origin of costermonger

1
First recorded in 1505–15; earlier costerdmonger;see costard, monger

Words Nearby costermonger

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use costermonger in a sentence

  • But they keep peddling them like a costermonger selling rotten fruit.

  • With horror she had heard her brother addressed by a disreputable costermonger in a mangy fur cap, as "Old pal."

  • You remember the costermonger whose family quarrelled with him for marrying beneath him?

    There and Back | George MacDonald
  • Any attempt at courtship after the style of the costermonger is resented by the whole corvine community.

  • But when the Major overstrains his voice, it misses fire like a costermonger's, and only a falsetto note comes on a high register.

    Somehow Good | William de Morgan
  • If she had been a little female costermonger she would have demanded her 'marriage lines' and clung to them fiercely.

    Robin | Frances Hodgson Burnett

British Dictionary definitions for costermonger

costermonger

coster

/ (ˈkɒstəˌmʌŋɡə) /


noun
  1. British rare a person who sells fruit, vegetables, etc, from a barrow

Origin of costermonger

1
C16: coster-, from costard + monger

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012