Dictionary

deerstealer en · NOUN

Etymology

From deer + stealer.

Meanings

1. One who steals or illicitly takes a deer, especially in England in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
   • 30. I. [The Same] to Att. Gen. Coventry. Two under keepers of Lord Denney, deerstealers, committed by him to Chelmsford gaol, have escaped […] 1859, Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series of the Reign of James 1. Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majestyʼs Public Record Office Edited by Mary Anne Everett Green: 1623-1625 with addenda, page 91, record of events of 9 October 1623
   • À propos of the bloodhounds, a good story is told of how they were hunting some deerstealers, and how they came to a check at some cottages by three cross roads — possibly the Robin Hood at the top of Marchington Cliff. […] the deerstealers escaped. 1901, James Lowndes Randall, A History of the Meynell Hounds and Country, 1780-1901, page 46:

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