gamestern.

1549 T. Chaloner tr. Erasmus Praise of Folie sig. Dii^v Sooner will they begyle theyr owne brother, than hym that nycked theim of theyr money, lest els perchaunce they might be counted foule gamesters.

1553 T. Wilson Arte of Rhetorique 51 No greater gamester in a whole countrey.

1607–8 in Quarter Sessions Rec. (N. Riding Rec. Soc.) (1884) I. 106 He is a gamester at cardes and doth waist his estate therby.

1676 J. Dryden Aureng-Zebe Prol. A losing Gamester, let him sneak away.

a1774 O. Goldsmith Misc. Wks. (1801) II. 88 The Gamester..Oft risques his fortune on one desperate throw.

1822 W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II. x. 238 'Tis the sitting gamester sweeps the board.

1880 R. Browning Clive 93 Your high-flown gamesters hardly take Umbrage at a factor's elbow if the factor plays his stake.

1938 H. Asbury Sucker's Progress 280 A few of the river gamesters ran Faro snaps when ashore in St. Louis, but most of them concentrated on Poker.

1991 S. Johnson Forbidden 468 Even a rash and reckless gamester wouldn't have touched those odds.

2008 A. Elyot All for Love 371 My heroine..was an aristocratic gamester up to her bonnet in gambling debts.

1615 T. Adams Lycanthropy 17 in Blacke Devill Yet Patience is the best gamester; for it winneth when it looseth.

1645 Bp. J. Hall Remedy Discontentm. vii. 33 The World is a cheating gamester, suffering us to win at the first.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. ii. 115 The Scots needed not now advance their Progress; their Game was in the hands..of better Gamesters.

1851 ‘L. Mariotti’ Italy in 1848 344 Had he reckoned the odds like other political gamesters, he would [etc.].

1914 T. G. Roberts Wasp vii. 138 I see a play in these seas..that lacks nothing but a true gamester. I shall grasp a fortune among these islands.

2011 Times (Nexis) 7 July (T2 section) 13 His deep, vibrantly grainy baritone suits the role of the chancer, the gamester, the amoral adventurer leading his artistic sibling astray.

1562 tr. Damiano da Odemira Pleasaunt Playe of Cheasts sig. Avi^v Like as also there bee players or gamsters, which helpe them selues better with the horseman then with y^e archer, & some other contrarywise.

1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xx. 82 Is it euer red that the athlets or gamesters vsed walking for an exercise?

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 304 Professed wrestlers, runners and such gamesters at feats of actiuity.

1662 T. Blount Boscobel (new ed.) ii. 9 His Majestie was askt by one of the Gamesters, if he could play [a game of Ball called Fives].

1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 53 The Gamesters at those Exercises were very stupid and thick-skull'd Fellows.

1727 Articles of Agreem. for Two Cricket Matches (West Sussex Rec. Office: Goodwood 1884) Twelve Gamesters shall play on each Side.

1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 400 The gamesters are equal in number on each side.

1832 P. Egan Bk. Sports 340/2 The great interest attached to cricket-matches..will warrant something more than the mere comparison of numbers and names of the gamesters.

1889 Virginia Med. Monthly Feb. 785 The prodigious..lunge of the excited gamester in his ‘spurt’ or frenzy of effort to attain the winner's honors.

1909 Amer. Gas Light Jrnl 2 Aug. 390/2 We did what we could to assuage their woe, after the [baseball] game was over, after the gamesters had gone, by serving them up a very enjoyable dinner.

1984 Orange Coast Mag. Dec. 295/1 For the gamester, both Saks Fifth Avenue and the Smithsonian Institution are offering one-of-a-kind chess sets in their holiday catalogues.

1994 Rolling Stone 16 June 86/2 Edge 16 will..let gamesters plug into on-line information and entertainment services.

2005 Western Standard (Alberta) (Nexis) 13 June 49 Being English, he was of course a gamester, so they played endless rounds of Scrabble.

1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days i. ii. 29 A pair of heavy single-sticks, with which Benjy himself had won renown long ago as an old gamester.

1859 T. Hughes Scouring of White Horse v. 92 That prizes be awarded for..Backsword Play, Old gamesters, 8l., Young gamesters, 4l., Wrestling, Old Gamesters, 5l., Young Gamesters, 4l.

1859 T. Hughes Scouring of White Horse vi. 119 ‘Who are the old gamesters?’ I asked of the man next me. ‘Them as has won or shared a first prize at any revel,’ answered he.

1888 J. Stevens Parochial Hist. St. Mary Bourne ix. 192 The ‘sports’..were the means of calling together an assemblage of gipsies, vagabonds, and ‘gamesters’, as they were called... Sometimes a ‘gold-laced hat’ for ‘old gamesters’ was offered; and small prizes were given to those who succeeded in breaking one head.

1922 A. Williams Round about Upper Thames iii. 48 The village teams of gamesters, trained to perform creditable feats with the single-sticks, and great in the wrestling contests.

1955 T. B. Costain Tontine I. ii. ix. 226 I was an Old Gamester even then and they came against me in the backswording.

1609 R. Armin Hist. Two Maids More-clacke sig. B3^v Good my daughters for them both, A course or so, go too, lead on, the bucks that haue imployment for these does, are not these giddy gamsters.

a1616 W. Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) v. iii. 191 She's impudent my Lord, And was a common gamester to the Campe. View more context for this quotation

a1625 J. Fletcher Wild-goose Chase (1652) ii. iii. 23 Good women scorn such Gamesters.

a1641 J. Smyth Berkeley MSS (1883) I. 156 The Rams..were not admitted all at one tyme..but some reserved..vntill the former gamsters had wasted their strength.

1683 tr. F. Pallavicino Whore's Rhetorick ii. 167 The dexterous acting this dying part..will ever produce very advantagious effects: the deceived Gamester believing these amorous pangs created by himself, will [etc.].

1708 E. Ward Mod. World Disrob'd 52 Some Smock-fac'd Gamester, who can win her Money first, carry off the Loser in a Hackney-Coach, and kiss her into a good Humour, before he parts with her.

1822 R. Nares Gloss. Gamester, a kind of familiar term for a debauched person of either sex.]

1842 Flash (N.Y.) 10 July 3/1 Her passions thus excited, she rushed madly onward in her career of vice, and at one time she was the common gamester of all the Middies in our Navy Yard.

1616 B. Jonson Every Man in his Humor (rev. ed.) i. ii, in Wks. I. 10 T' haue tane on trust, Such petulant, geering gamsters, that can spare No argument, or subiect from their iest.

1623 W. Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII i. iv. 46 You are a merry Gamster My Lord Sands. View more context for this quotation

1640 Cœlum Brittanicum in T. Carew Poems 242 This is the sprightly Lady Hedone, merry Gamester, this people call her Pleasure.