[f. COME v. + -ER1.]
1. One who comes; a visitor, an ‘arrival.’
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. II. 206. Freres with feir speeches fetten him þennes; For knowynge of Comers kepten [v.r. copeden] him as a Frere.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxx. 136. Ma þan xxxm of folke, withouten commers and gangers.
1526–34. Tindale, Mark vi. 31. There were many commers and goers.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. viii. 3. Whose gates he fownd fast shutt, ne living wight To … answere commers call.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. i. 21.
1659. Leak, Waterwks., 34. For the facility of comers between the two Towns.
1775. Johnson, Tax. no Tyr., 11. To leave his house to a casual comer.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., ix. 101. So Clara prepared for the arrival, and greeted the comer.
† b. with adverbs, about, again, by, in, out, etc.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. II. 41. For knihtes of Cuntre and Comers aboute.
1388. Wyclif, Ezek. xxxv. 7. Y shal take awei fro it a goere and a comere aȝen.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 68. Þe disciplis lowse þe comar out.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Gl. (Arb.), 65. And shewe their scarres to every commer by.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxix. (1887), 216. Comers in, and goers out of one countrey into another.
1800. Bentham, Wks., X. 356. Comers-in by birth; comers-in by migration.
c. often qualified by a word prefixed, as first, next comer, CHANCE-, NEW-COMER, INCOMER.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 140. Buryden his body & beden þat men sholde Kepen it fro niȝt-comeres.
1526. Tindale, Gal. ii. 4. Be cause of incommers.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par., Matt. iv. 33. Farre cummers, out of other straunge countreyes.
1649. Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., I. ix. 82. Offering themselves to the next commer.
1725. De Foe, Voy. Round World (1840), 183. Treat their new comers with breach of faith.
1811. Coleridge, in Southey’s Life of Bell (1844), II. 645. Disagreeable even to foot-comers, and far more so to carriages.
1842. Tennyson, Will Waterproof, i. But let it not be such as that You set before chance-comers.
d. All comers: everybody or anybody that comes or chooses to come.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 380. The king … who all that tyme kept open household for all honest commers.
1614. Bp. Hall, Contempl. O. T., VI. iv. To stand alone, and challenge all comers.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1709), 118. The Temple of Honour stands open to all Comers.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., iv. (1889), 31. To make his rooms pleasant to all comers.
1867. Morley, Burke (1888), 28. Where Johnson did conversational battle with all comers.
† 2. A grower or springer up: said (with qualification) of a plant. Obs.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 594. These latter sort [of plants] are all swift and hasty Comers.
