Also 6 venterer, -our. [f. VENTURE v. Cf. ADVENTURER and It. venturiere.]
1. One who ventures, in various senses; an adventurer.
1530. Palsgr., 284/2. Venturer on the lande, aduenturier, Ibid., Venturer on the see, piratte.
1538. Tonstall, Serm. Palm Sund. (1823), 67. To make this realme a praye to al venturers, al spoylers,… all rauenours of the worlde.
a. 1560. Phaër, Æneid, X. (1562), G gij b. Fortune is frend to venturers, and cowards hateth most.
a. 1631. Donne, Poems (1635), 274. No family Ere rigg’d a soule … With whom more Venturers more boldly dare Venture their states.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, Pref. a 6. Lastly for Detraction and Censure … it is more my scorn than feare, and ought to be to any Venturer abroad into publike view.
1727. in Bailey (vol. II.).
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxviii. A visit to the gaming-table—not as a heated, anxious venturer, but [etc.].
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, I. 447. The next night Prince Louis Bonaparte and his fellow venturers destroyed the French republic.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., vii. No Arctic venturer on the waveless sea Feels the dread stillness [etc.].
fig. 1624. Donne, Serm. (1649), II. xlix. 463. Was God a venturer with me in my sinne?
transf. 1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 201. Airy leaves of woodbine … Are earliest venturers to unfold their buds.
† b. (See quot.) Obs.–1
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 129. The venturers with the sword were 60. thousand in number [marg., Gli Venturieri da spada, are a kind of venturing souldiers, who commonly are wont to folow the army in hope of the spoile.].
2. One who undertakes or shares in a commercial or trading venture, esp. by sending goods or ships beyond seas; a merchant-venturer.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., a ij. The gouerners, Consulles, and the reste of the companie of venturers into Moscouia.
1593. R. Harvey, Philad., 3. What traffique should a venturer haue [etc.].
1621–3. Middleton & Rowley, Changeling, I. i. I meant to be a venturer in this voyage.
1632. Massinger, City Madam, I. iii. You were the main venturer In every ship that launched forth.
1661. Webster, Cure for Cuckold, III. iii. This beginning May make us of small venturers to become Hereafter wealthy merchants.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, vi. 88. The great Capitalist whose imperial sway is more withering than despotism itself, to the enterprises of humble venturers.
† 3. A strumpet or prostitute. Cf. VENTURE sb. 8. Obs.–1
1607. Dekker & Webster, Westw. Hoe, II. ii. Mist. Just. Had thy Circæan Magick me transformd … that I were turn’d common Venturer, I could not loue this old man.
