[f. FLING v. + -ER1.] One who flings, in various senses of the verb.
a. in intr. senses: A dancer; also, one who rushes out of. Of a horse: A kicker.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxiii. 9.
| Musicianis, menstralis, and mirrie singaris: | |
| Chevalouris, callandaris, and [fals] flingaris. |
1519. Horman, Vulg., xix. 170. This is a great kykar or a flyngar: and therfore I wyll nat come on his backe.
1599. E. Sandys, Europæ Speculum (1632), 219. Hæretickes and Schismatickes, flingers out of the Church.
1822. Scott, Pirate, ix. ‘I suld hae minded you was a flinger and a fiddler yoursell.’
b. trans. One who throws or casts. Flinger out: one who casts or drives out; an expeller.
1598. Florio, Piombatore … a violent flinger, a hurler.
1600. J. Melvill, Diary (1842), I. 52. Episcoporum exactor, the flinger out of Bischopes.
1673. F. Kirkman, Unlucky Citizen, Pref. A iij. I ought not to look on the stone, but the hand of the flinger.
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Windows, I. 1014.
| Were it good | |
| For any pope on earth to be a flinger | |
| Of stones against these high-niched counterfeits? |
