a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 370) (1850) 4 Kings iii. 25 The cyte is enuyround of slyngers.

a1400 Octouian (W.) 1599 Spermen, slyngers, and arblasteres.

c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 459/2 Slyngare, fundibuiarius.

?1556 N. Smyth tr. Herodian Hist. iii. f. 33 All the Mauritanyan Slyngers that were in his seruyce.

1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 211 The Inhabitants [of Dorset] of all English-men were the cunningest slingers.

1671 J. Milton Samson Agonistes 1619 Behind [him] Archers, and Slingers, Cataphracts and Spears. View more context for this quotation

1737 W. Whiston tr. Josephus Jewish War i. vii, in tr. Josephus Genuine Wks. 703 The slingers of stones beat off those that stood above them.

1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. l. 241 The heights had been occupied by the archers and slingers of the confederates.

1825 W. Scott Betrothed iv, in Tales Crusaders I. 69 Their own archers..were supported by numerous bodies of darters and slingers.

1870 R. W. Emerson Work & Days in Society & Solitude The sympathy of eye and hand by which..a practised slinger hits his mark with a stone.

1902 Sat. Rev. 5 July 12/2 Last year he was a mere slinger, to-day he bowls a capital length.

1920 D. J. Knight in P. F. Warner Cricket (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) (new ed.) i. 45 The man [sc. fast bowler] who bowls with his arm more or less horizontal—a slinger.

1926 Variety 29 Dec. 5/3 The erudite word slingers.

1926 Variety 29 Dec. 5/3 The slang slingers.

1944 E. Blunden Cricket Country iv. 52 T. was soon displaced for a less expensive slinger.

1979 Vole June 45/2 The slingers of the mid-nineteenth century terrified lesser batsmen.

1882 F. W. P. Jago Anc. Lang. & Dial. Cornwall 267 Slingers. Kettle broth made of boiling water, bread, salt, and pepper, with sometimes a little butter.

1890 A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang II. 256/2 Slingers,..bits of bread floating in tea.

1895 R. Kipling in Pall Mall Gaz. 30 May 2/2 You won't have no mind for slingers, not to-morrow—..bein' sick!

1918 E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms Slingers,..a slang term among soldiers signifying a meal of bread and tea.

1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 261 Slingers, tea or coffee with bread soaked in it. Dumplings.

1962 W. Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 108 Slingers, ship's biscuits or bread soaked in cocoa. A snack eaten before slinging one's hammock. Supper is very early in the Navy and slingers help to fortify the men until breakfast the next day.

1965 ‘J. le Carré’ Looking-glass War ii. 31 We had the canteen in the old days. Slinger and wadge.

1881 Daily News 16 Nov. 7/1 A slinger in the employ of Messrs. Maudslay, the engineers,..who was killed by the fall of a boiler plate which he was..slinging.

1969 Daily Tel. 2 Apr. 1/1 The slip was dropped from an overall pocket by a slinger—a man who guides car bodies and other parts into position on the assembly track—and it showed that he was earning as much as the assembly workers themselves.

1974 P. Wright Lang. Brit. Industry viii. 69 In heavy electrical engineering, where the crane-driver can see the slinger directing his load, they communicate by shouts.

1982 Sunday Times 27 June 3/1 I've been in the ropery 12 years and my husband's been in the yard, as a slinger, for 17 years.

1807 C. W. Janson Stranger in Amer. 299 I know of no custom more destructive than that which is practised by slingers and eleveners.

1767 W. Meston Poems 129 As ships, that bear more sail then ballast, Slinger before the very smallest Unequal blast.