† 1. One who plays at games of chance, or adventures his money in such games; a gamester. Obs.
1474. Ord. Royal Housh., 29. That no person … being within our sayd sonnes householde be customable swearer, brawler, backbyter, common hasorder, adventorer.
2. One who seeks adventures, or who engages in hazardous enterprises.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 440. Now expecting Each hour their great adventurer from the search Of foreign worlds.
1794. Sullivan, View of Nat., II. The first voyages into the Ægean, Euxine, and Mediterranean Seas made by the various adventurers.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 506. A succession of Irish adventurers … attempted to earn the bribe.
3. esp. One who engages in warlike adventures, attaching himself to no party; a soldier of fortune; also, a volunteer, one who makes war at his own risk.
1548. Hall, Chron. (1809), 646. He gave them a Pennon of St. George and bade them, Adventure (of whiche they were called Adventurers).
1555. Fardle of Facions, II. xi. 244. Much lyke to our aduenturers, that serue withoute wages.
1665. Manley, Grotius’s Low-Countrey-Warrs, 251. One of the famous Adventurers in the taking of Breda.
1844. Thirlwall, Greece, VIII. lxi. 78. Military adventurers ready to flock to any standard.
4. One who undertakes, or shares in, commercial adventures or enterprises; a speculator; as in the ancient Society of Merchant Adventurers, so named by Henry VII.
1609. Thorpe, in Shaks. Cent. Praise, 86. To the onlie begetter of these insving sonnets, Mr. W. H., all Hapinesse wisheth … the well-wishing adventvror in setting forth. T. T.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, IV. 166. Fewer Aduenturers here will aduenture any more.
1644. Heylin, Life of Laud, I. 220. The party so designed shall be presented to their Lordships by the Merchant Adventurers.
1653. (27 Sept.) Ordinance for the Satisfaction of the Adventurers for Lands in Ireland, and the Arrears due to the Soldiery there.
1713. Guardian, No. 54 (1756), I. 240. I became an adventurer in one of the late lotteries.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 135. Private adventurers had sometimes … fitted out ships for the Eastern seas.
1881. R. W. Raymond, Mining Terms, Adventurers (Eng.), Shareholders or partners in a mining enterprise.
5. One who is on the look-out for chances of personal advancement; one who lives by his wits.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, g 1 a. Since Courtaines, Bastions, and Contrescarps are to be traced for Old Eyes, as well as for young Adventurers.
1704. Swift, T. of Tub, § 1. 22. To encourage all aspiring adventurers.
1762. Goldsm., Beau Nash, 50. Wherever people of fashion came, needy adventurers were generally found in waiting.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xv. 224. He saw adventurers pushing themselves into office.
