Also 4 worschiper, wirshiper, 5 wor-, 6 woorshypper, 7, 9 worshiper. [f. WORSHIP v. + -ER1.]
1. One who worships. Freq. const. of (the deity or thing worshipped).
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 88. Þes wickid ydolatrours, worschiperis of false goddis. Ibid. (1382), 2 Macc. i. 19. Prestis that thanne weren wirshipers of God. Ibid., Acts xvii. 22. Men of Athenis, bi alle thingis I se ȝou as veyn worschiperis.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 168. God … is a spiryte: and they that be his true worshyppers, must worshyp hym in spiryte.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), P iij b. He was a greatte louer of his goddis, and woorshypper of theym.
1549. Cheke, Hurt Sedit. (1569), M j. Such fansies lighted nowe in Papistes, and irreligious mens heades,… delighteth in true worshippers hurt.
1612. Two Noble K., V. i. 41. True worshippers of Mars.
1631. Gouge, God’s Arrows, III. § 3. 187. This immortall fewde against worshippers of the true God.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 58. The ready imitation of his [Odin’s] superstitious worshippers.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. 141. Fire, being the purest body in nature, its worshippers supposed that it ought to be honoured with the purest kind of devotion.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxii. The good father … is … already a worshipper of the Deity whom I have served.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., II. iii. All men, especially all women, are born worshipers.
1868. FitzGerald, Omar, ii. When all the Temple is prepared within, Why lags the drowsy Worshipper outside?
1876. J. Parker, Paraclete, I. vii. 108. The worshippers of Intellect may not know that they are worshippers of God under another namne.
b. One engaged in, or taking part in, divine worship.
1825. Scott, Talism., ix. Did you, or did you not, know any lady amongst that band of worshippers?
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. III. 252. The worshippers were dispersed, beaten, and pelted with snowballs.
1914. J. Mackay, Ch. in Highlands, v. 207. Itinerant preachers conducted occasional services wherever a few worshippers could be got together.
2. transf. One who regards a person or thing with feelings akin to worship; a devotee.
1647. Cowley, Mistr., Her Unbelief, 10. Thou sit’st, and dost not see, nor smell, nor hear Thy constant zealous worshipper.
1694. trans. Milton’s Lett. State, 142. All your Enterprizes … in asserting the Liberty of the Gospel and the Worshippers of it.
1788. Crowe, Lewesdon Hill, 3.
| And, vested so, | |
| Thou dost appear more gracefully array’d | |
| Than Fashion’s worshippers. |
1792. Almon, Anecd. W. Pitt, I. xx. 331. Notwithstanding the state of modern depravity, Truth will continue to have her worshippers.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, V. i. When the Poet dies, Mute Nature mourns her worshipper.
1829. Lytton, Devereux, II. v. A worshipper of the ‘Glass of Fashion,’ rather than of ‘the Mould of Form.’
1847. S. Hickson, in Westm. Rev., XLVII. 60. We can only conclude, worshipper of Shakspere as he is, that he prejudged the question.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvii. IV. 85. Sarsfield was … too honourable a gentleman to abuse his immense power over the minds of his worshippers.
