Also 6 vyager, -eour, 6–7 viager. [ad. OF. veaigier, voi-, voyag(i)er (F. voyageur), or f. VOYAGE v. + -ER1.]
1. One who journeys; a traveller by land.
1477. [see VOYAGE v. 1].
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 616/1. Them coumpte we stylle for vyagers and pylgrimes … towarde the same place … that we walke.
1686. Burnet, Trav., 3. It may look like a presumptuous affectation to be reckoned among Voyagers, if he attempts to say anything upon so short a ramble, and concerning places so much visited, and by consequence so well known.
1833. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Loire, 20. The Patache is a vehicle that the traveller … will frequently have recourse to. Its voyagers are a grade lower in society than those of the diligence.
1845. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 11. Such a voyager, if it has ever been his hap to turn his feet to Orleans.
1885. Sat. Rev., 23 Oct., 532/2. Let any student of life … go to a terminus when a train has come in, and watch the faces of the voyagers as they battle for ‘their things.’
† b. Knight voyager, a knight errant. Obs.
c. 1500. Melusine, 362. The kyng vnderstod by the report of som knightes vyageours, that there was in the grete Armanye a Castel.
2. One who goes upon, or takes part in, a voyage or voyages by sea; a navigator.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., XIX. 298. Fenton next, and Jackman…, Both Voyagers, that were with famous Frobosher.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. xl. 52. You go on to prefer my Captivity in this Fleet to that of a Voyager at Sea.
1656. Cowley, Pindar. Odes, Resurrect., i. Not Winds to Voyagers at Sea, Nor Showers to Earth more necessary be,… Than Verse to Virtue.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 34, ¶ 5. It is usual with young Voyagers, as soon as they land upon a Shore, to begin their Accounts of the Nature of the People.
1783. W. F. Martyn, Geog. Mag., II. 529. Voyagers … are much divided in their accounts of the natives.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., II. xci. Long shall the voyager, with th’ Ionian blast, Hail the bright clime of battle and of song.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 1. The Arctic voyagers have seen King Winter on his throne.
1879. E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 119. The Sea Lion of voyagers in the southern seas.
b. transf. and fig., in various applications.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1707), IV. 189. She prays for the little Infant Voyager, That he may so pass the Waves of this troublesome World as finally to come to the Land of Everlasting Life.
1819. Shelley, Lett., Pr. Wks. 1880, IV. 147. Your boat will be to the ocean of water, what this earth is to the ocean of aether—a prosperous and swift voyager.
1826. Mechanics’ Mag., VI. 286/2. In this region the voyager [in a balloon] sailed till half-past nine o’clock.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Humble Bee, 15. Insect lover of the sun,… Sailor of the atmosphere,… Voyager of light and noon.
1890. Spectator, 7 June, 793/1. This rapid voyager [the dragon-fly] passes over you, proceeds beyond you…, then turns [etc.].
