English

Noun

swinker ‎(plural swinkers)

1. (archaic or dialectal) A toiler; a labourer.
   • 1845, Thomas Ignatius M. Forster, Richard Gough, Epistolarium:

     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, [...]

   • 1891, Harper's magazine - Volume 83 - Page 786:

     Tosspots and swinkers were they then; tosspots and swinkers are they still.

   • 2010, Eileen Power, Medieval English Nunneries:

     [...] 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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

Related terms

• swinkard