pingler

pingler

English

Noun

pingler (plural pinglers)

1. (rare) One who plays with his food, but does not eat.
   • 1607, Edward Topsell, The History of Four-Footed Beasts, page 412:

     It hath large and wide cheeks, which they always fill, both carrying in, and carrying out, they eat with both, whereupon a devouring fellow,such a one as Stafimus a servant to Plautus was, is called Cricetus, a Hamster, because he filleth his mouth well, and is no pingler at his meat.

   • 1636, Stephen Bradwell, Physick for the sicknesse, commonly called the plague, page 21:

     For the Drunkennesse lives of many are so monstrous, that Heliogabalus was but a pingler to them.

   • 1888, John Day, ‎Nathan Field, ‎Herbert Percy Horne, Nero & Other Plays, page 131:

     ...if I cannot drink it down to my foot, ere I leave, and then set the tap in the midst of the house, and then turn a good turn on the toe on it, let me be counted nobody, a pingler, — nay, let me be bound to drink nothing but small-beer seven years after — and I had as lief be hanged.

   • 1964, Time & Tide, Volume 45:

     A person who only toys with his food, or a child who will not eat, is a pingler.

   • 1986, Audrey Whiting, Gal Audrey, page 162:

     '"Gal Audrey, yer wot l call a pingler. You don't never want nothin' to eat," Mum snapped.

Anagrams

• Pringle, lerping, pringle