Crossword clues for costermonger
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Costermonger \Cos"ter*mon`ger\ (k?s"t?r-m?n`g?r), n. [See Costard.] An apple seller; a hawker of, or dealer in, any kind of fruit or vegetables; a fruiterer. [Written also costardmonger.]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. (context British English) a trader who sells fruit and vegetables from a barrow in the street
WordNet
n. a hawker of fruit and vegetables from a barrow [syn: barrow-man, barrow-boy]
Wikipedia
Costermonger, coster, or costard is a street seller of fruit and vegetables, in London and other British towns. Costermongers were ubiquitous in mid- Victorian England, and some are still found in markets. As usual with street-sellers, they would use a loud sing-song cry or chant to attract attention. The costermonger's cart might be stationary at a market stall, or mobile (horse-drawn or wheelbarrow). The term is derived from the words costard (a now extinct medieval variety of large, ribbed apple) and monger (seller).
Costers met a need for rapid food distribution from the central markets (e.g., Smithfield for meat, Spitalfields for fruit and vegetables or Billingsgate for fish). Their membership as a coster was signalled by their large neckerchief, known as a kingsman, tied round their necks. Their hostility towards the police was legendary.
The term is now often used to describe hawkers in general; sometimes a distinction is made between the two: a costermonger sells from a handcart or animal-drawn cart, while a hawker carries his wares in a basket.
Usage examples of "costermonger".
The costermongers on Silverback Street were yelling and pointing at the fat dirigible uncoiling its dangling rigging to the earth.
Costermongers, hawkers, and pedlars, a class of workers who live from hand to mouth more than those of any other class, form the highest percentage of those in the lunatic asylums.
He spoke Cockney like a costermonger, Bostonese like Beacon Hill, Aussie like a kangaroo.
And dogs barking, the morning rasp of vendors hawking bread, oysters and hot codlings, the cries of the newspaper boys and the rumbling carts of the costermongers.
Carts and wagons rumbled by, the costermongers bringing produce to be loaded at the riverside before the worst of the heat.
The merchants suffered, as trade goods were tossed wholesale into the river to make way for human cargo, and shortages in the cities ensued as provender was bought up by the cartload from the costermongers who many times sold out their produce before it could arrive at the city markets.
Tethered dogs, the shouts of costermongers, the drone of engines, hammers and lathes, and stones being broken.
Come to think of it, I don't suppose Holbein was commissioned by that many costermongers from the East End.
I burst out laughing because all the costermongers in the Whitechapel Road always did whenever they heard that word, although I admit that at the time I didn't have a clue what a virgin was.
Just so with whaling, which necessitates a three-years’ housekeeping upon the wide ocean, far from all grocers, costermongers, doctors, bakers, and bankers.