[f. TROOP sb. + -ER1.]
1. A soldier in a troop of cavalry; a horse soldier.
The term was used in connection with the Covenanting Army which invaded England in 1640. It was used in the English Army in 1660. In the first establishment of Horse Regiments after the Restoration, the strength of a troop of horse was 1 Captain, 1 Lieutenant, and 60 Troopers.
1640. Bk. War Comm. Covenanters, 1. That ilk trouper have for the twa pairt of the 40 dayes lone appoyntit be the Committie of Estaites xviij libs.
1694. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 296. [They] were all mounted on gray and white horses, and new clothed, and are more like troopers than dragoons.
1703. Marlborough, Lett. & Disp. (1845), I. 164. The troopers might embark with the two regiments of foot.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. 199. The escort … consisted of but two companies of native infantry and sixteen troopers.
1877. Field Exerc. Infantry, 331. Two or more troopers should be with each support, to carry intelligence.
b. In various colloq. and slang phrases, esp. to swear like a trooper.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., s.v., You will die the death of a trooper’s horse, that is with your shoes on, a jocular method of telling any one he will be hanged.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXVI. 122. The fellow … swore like a trooper.
1812. Lady Granville, Lett., 12 Sept. (1894), I. 41. William Lamb laughs and eats like a trooper.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xli. Jack was heard below, swearing like a trooper.
1854. Badham, Halieut., 443. A friend of his, ‘eques fortissimus,’ i.e. one who lied like a trooper.
1884. Symonds, Shaks. Predecess., iv. 160. Juventus … swears like a trooper.
2. A horse ridden by a trooper; a troop-horse; a cavalry horse.
1640. Sir J. Lessley in Antiq. Rep. (1809), IV. 436. The tag’d tail’d trooper that stands in the staw.
1791. ‘G. Gambado,’ Ann. Horsem., iv. (1809), 84. Instead of his capering like a Trooper, he hangs down his head and tail.
1855. Whyte-Melville, Gen. Bounce, xx. How he gave it you … about riding that old trooper instead of your own charger!
1901. Field, 9 Feb., 163/3. These expenses take too much off the price paid for a trooper.
3. In Australia: A mounted policeman.
1858. McCombie, Hist. Victoria, viii. 100. A violent effort [was] made by the troopers on duty to disperse an assemblage which occupied the space of ground in front of the hustings.
1864. J. Rogers, New Rush, II. 51. A trooper spies him snoring in the street.
4. A troop-ship.
1872. ‘Aliph Cheem’ (Yeldham), Lays of Ind (1876), 204. The gallant trooper ‘Crocodile’ is getting under weigh.
1880. World, 13 Oct. Of those in the Euphrates, one of the Imperial troopers, four were down simultaneously with sunstroke.
1896. Newnham-Davis, Three Men & a God, 79. The last hired trooper of the season was going home in the early spring, taking in her a draft of the regiment.
† 5. Cant. A half-crown. Obs.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Trooper, a half Crown.
