Dictionary

swinker en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English swinkere, equivalent to swink + -er.

Meanings

1. (archaic, dialectal) A toiler; a labourer.
   • […] whether they were quizzed by "those idle gallants who haunt taverns, gay and handsome," or hobnobbed with "travellers and tinkers, sweaters and swinkers," the alehouse was assuredly no place for nuns. 2010, Eileen Power, Medieval English Nunneries:
   • Ye are twin swinkers in this nether field / One to prolong, the other to expand, / My landmark and my clock; but both must yield, / To the destroying angel's flaming wand, […] 1845, Thomas Ignatius M. Forster, Richard Gough, Epistolarium:
   • Tosspots and swinkers were they then; tosspots and swinkers are they still. 1891, Harper's magazine, volume 83, page 786:

Forms

Relateds

swinkard · swink