Obs. or arch. Also 7–9 sutle. [ad. early mod.Du. soetelen, or back-formation f. SUTLER, q.v.] intr. To carry on the business of a sutler. Chiefly in vbl. sb. suttling.
1648. Hexham, II. Zoetelen, to Suttle [ed. 1678 sutle], or to Victuall.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 69. He [sc. a gunner] can no more abstain from suttling on board, and running Goods a-shore, than he can refrain from talking Bawdy in modest Company.
1757. Washington, Writ. (1889), I. 467. To prevent irregular suttling.
1787. Nelson, 29 Dec., in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), I. 263. I have been obliged to punish him for suttling to the Ship’s Company and making numbers of them drunk.
1904. Athenæum, 10 Sept., 339/3. Dismissed for dishonest greed—for suttling, false musters, or turning their ships into merchantmen.
b. in vbl. sb. suttling used attrib., esp. in suttling-house, a house where food and drink are supplied, esp. to soldiers; also suttling booth, department, place, shop.
1691. Lond. Gaz., No. 2653/4. Mr. Creggs at the Suttling-House in the Savoy.
1710. Steele & Addison, Tatler, No. 260, ¶ 3. She came to him in the Disguise of a Suttling Wench, with a Bottle of Brandy under her Arm.
1747. Gentl. Mag., April, 197/1. The suttling house at the Tilt Yard, Whitehall.
1777. Howard, Prisons Eng., iv. (1780), 110. No sutling place to be kept in this house of correction.
1809. General J. Wilkinson, Speech in Congress, 19 June (1853), 2439. I shall make such arrangements in the sutling department as entirely to exclude the use of ardent spirits which have been the bane of the service.
1827. Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 111. Suttling-booths … appeared now on the Thames.
1829. J. T. Smith, Bk. for Rainy Day (1905), 282. We entered the parlour of the ‘Canteen,’ that being the sign of the suttling-house of the Palace [Hampton Court].
1832. Sir J. Campbell, Mem., I. ii. 35. He … set up a suttling-shop with the money.
