[f. VEND v. + -ER1. Cf. VENDOR.]
1. One who sells; a seller; sometimes in restricted sense, a street-seller.
1596. Bacon, Max. & Use Com. Law, II. (1635), 62. A deed of gift of goods is … good against the executors, administrators, or vender of the party himselfe.
1681. Sc. Acts Parlt. (1820), VIII. 243/2. Venders & dispersers of forbidden books.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 251, ¶ 5. Take care in particular, that those may not make the most Noise who have the least to sell, which is very observable in the Venders of Card-matches.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 181, ¶ 11. I inquired diligently at what office any prize had been sold, that I might purchase of a more propitious vender.
1800. Colquhoun, Comm. Thames, iv. 193. Small Grocers, and venders of Smuggled Goods.
1837. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. iv. § 57. The Swiss reformer was engaged in combating the venders of indulgences.
1866. Engel, Nat. Mus., viii. 301. The melodious cries of venders in the noisy streets of large and populous towns.
fig. 1834. Southey, Doctor, vi. (1862), 17. He gathered the fruit of knowledge for himself instead of receiving it from the dirty fingers of a retail vender.
2. One who advances or advocates an opinion, etc.
1818. Dwight, Theol. (1830), I. 92. Epicurus, the principal vender of this system.
Hence Venderess, vendress, a female seller.
1800. Hurdis, Fav. Village, 98. Vendress of ballads and the bundled match.
1862. Miss M. B. Edwards, John & I, I. v. 96. A stout girl, venderess of coarse green earthenware from the town.
