subs. (venery).—1. A prostitute; spec. a whore-thief: also a generic contempt: see TART.
1705–7. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, II. ii. (1715), 25. Punks, Strolers, Market Dames, and BUNTERS.
1748. SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, xlvii. And asked with some heat, if he thought I had spent the evening in a cellar with chairmen and BUNTERS.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). BUNTER (s.), one who goes about the streets to gather rags, bones, etc.
1759. WALPOLE, The Parish Register of Twickenham.
| Here Fielding met his BUNTER Muse, | |
| And, as they quaff’d the fiery juice, | |
| Droll Nature stamp’d each lucky hit, | |
| With unimaginable wit. |
1763. British Magazine, IV., 542. I heard a BUNTER at the Horse-Guards … swear she would not venture into the Park.
1765. GOLDSMITH, Essays, x. The BUNTERS who swagger in the streets of London.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 85. As thick as BUNTERS in the Strand. Ibid., 188. This BUNTER Venus.
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, II. 158. They were known by the name of BUNTERS, which signifies properly gatherers of rags.
2. (common).—See quot.: and cf. BUNKER.
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, IV. 223. There is a class of women technically known as BUNTERS, who take lodgings, and after staying some time run away without paying their rent.
