verb. (old).—Primarily to draw, serve, or offer drink. Whence as subs. = drink or LAP (q.v.); and SKINKER = (1) a tapster, or waiter (B. E.); (2) a landlord, and (3) see quots. 1785 and 1847.

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  1205.  LAYAMON [MADDEN], 8124.

        Weoren þa bernes [men],
I-SCÆNGTE mid beore.
& þa drihliche gumen,
weoren win drunken.

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  1383.  CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales, ‘The Merchant’s Tale,’ 478. Bacus the wyn hem SKYNKETH al aboute.

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  1582–7.  HAKLUYT, Voyages, I. 480. For that cause called this new city by the name of Naloi: that is SKINCK or poure in.

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  1594.  GREEN and LODGE, A Looking-Glass for London and England, 140. I’ll have them SKINK my standing-bowls with wine. Ibid. JACK SKINKER, fill it full.

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  1600.  Grim, the Collier of Croydon, ii. [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), xi. 222].

        I must be SKINKER then, let me alone;
They all shall want, ere Robin shall have none.

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  1601.  JONSON, The Poetaster, iv. 3.

          Alb.  I’ll ply the table with nectar, and make them friends.
  Her.  Heaven is like to have but a lame SKINKER, then.
    Ibid. (1614), Bartholomew Fair, ii.
Then SKINK out the first glass ever, and drink with all companies.
    Ibid. (d. 1637), Verses at Apollo, vii. 295.
Hang up all the poor hop-drinkers,
Cries old Sym, the King of SKINKERS.

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  1606.  MARSTON, Sophonisba, v. 2.

                            Let me not drink
’Till my breast burst, O Jove, thy NECTAR SKINKE.

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  1609.  DEKKER, The Guls Horne-booke, 26. Awake thou noblest drunkard Bacchus—teach me, thou sovereign SKINKER.

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  1617.  FLETCHER, The Knight of Malta, iii. 1. Our glass of life runs wine, the vintner SKINKS it.

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  c. 1650.  BRATHWAITE, Barnaby’s Journal (1723), 57.

        There I toss’d it with my SKINKERS:
Not a drop of wit remained
Which the bottle had not drained.

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  1652.  SHIRLEY, The Imposture, A5, 57. Such wine as Ganymede doth SKINKE to Jove.

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  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. SKINK … to wait on the company, ring the bell, stir the fire, and snuff the candles; the duty of the youngest officer in the military mess.

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  1818.  SCOTT, Rob Roy, iv. I give my vote and interest to Jonathan Brown, our landlord, to be the King and Prince of SKINKERS, conditionally that he fetches us another bottle as good as the last.

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  1831.  LAMB, Satan in Search of a Wife, II. xxvii.

        No Hebe fair stood Cup Bearer there,
  The guests were their own SKINKERS.

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  1847.  HALLIWELL, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, etc., s.v. SKINK. In a family the person latest at breakfast is called the SKINK, or the SKINKER, and some domestic office is imposed or threatened for the day, such as ringing the bell, putting coal on the fire, or in other cases, drawing the beer for the family.

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  1852.  HAWTHORNE, The Blithedale Romance, xxiv. 245. Some old-fashioned SKINKERS and drawers … were spreading a banquet on the leaf-strewn earth.

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