[f. TINKLE v.1 + -ER1.] That which tinkles; esp. a descriptive name for a small bell, etc. (in slang = ‘bell’); in quot. 1600, a name for some base coin.
1600. Stirling Kirk Sess. Reg. (Bann. Cl.), 133. Ane great part of the almus gevin to the Pure is fals cunie callit Tinklaris.
1767. Anna Seward, Lett., in Poet. Wks. (1810), I. 195. A Spinnet…, the little tinkler is a wretched substitute for my dear harpsichord.
1787. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ode upon Ode, Wks. 1812, I. 419. Thus when the Oxford Bell, baptized Great Tom, Shakes all the city with his iron tongue, The little Tinklers might as well be dumb.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxv. ‘Hark!’ cried the Dodger at this moment, ‘I heard the tinkler.’
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, iii. Giving the little tinkler of a bell a pull as he spoke.
1901. R. Anderson, Hist. Kilsyth, vii. 65. The old ‘tinkler’ which … had done service in the belfry of the disused church.
b. A person who tinkles; a rhymester.
1731. A. Hill, Adv. Poets, xxii. But, ah! far short th’unsolid Tinklers rise; Nor soar, but flutter, in the Muse’s Skies.
