1. One who buys up goods before they reach the public market. Also forestaller of the market.
[1292. Britton, I. xxi. § 11. Et ausi de forstallours.]
14[?]. Chalmerlain Ayr, i. (Sc. Stat., I.). Þe furth duelland forstallaris of þe forsaid burgh.
1472. Presentm. Juries, in Surtees Misc. (1890), 25. Forstallers of samen comyng toward the markett in Selby.
1527. Rastell, Abridgm. Stat., s.v. Forstallers of wynes.
a. 1626. Bacon, Max. & Uses Com. Law (1635), 11. They are both to licence and suppresse Alehouses, Badgers of Corne and Victuals, and to punish Forestallers, Regrators, and Engrossers.
1712. Hearne, Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), III. 471. Goods forfeited by the Forestallers of the Market in Oxon to go to ye Hospital of St. John’s.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1872), III. III. i. 101. If your Rights of Man were anything but a piece of written paper, the plunder of a few shops, and a forestaller or two hung up at the door-lintels, would put an end to such things.
1881. W. R. Smith, Old Test. in Jewish Ch., xii. 347. The landowners became merchants and forestallers of grain (Amos viii. 5; Hosea xii. 7).
† 2. One who bars or obstructs the way. Obs.
1623. Bingham, Xenophon, 62. If they tooke the top of the hill, they should make good the place that night, and as soone, as it was day, giue a signe with the trumpet, and descend and charge the forestallers of the knowne way, and the rest of the army beneath ascend, and ioine with them in as great speed, as was possible.
† 3. A taster. Obs. (? nonce-use.)
1611. Cotgr., Preguste, a Taster, or Forestaller; one that takes th’ essay of meats.
4. One who or that which acts in anticipation of another person or thing.
1870. Daily News, 15 Nov. That sweeping forestaller of letters, the telegraph.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 9 Oct., 7/2. The … withdrawal of Red Heart … is the most severe blow which ‘forestallers’ have received.
