[f. ANGLE v.1 + -ER1.]
1. One who angles or fishes with a hook and line.
1552. Huloet, Angler or fysher with an angle, Hamota.
1597. Bp. Hall, Sat., V. Seest thou the wary angler trayle along His feeble line?
1653. Walton, Angler, 8. The Primitive Christians … were (as most Anglers are) quiet men and followed peace.
1722. De Foe, Moll Fl. (1840), 147. I played with this lover as an angler does with a trout.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, iii. (1880), 78. When the angler essays his skill upon the wily old veterans of the pond.
b. fig.
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse (ed. 2), 28 b. Noble Lord Warden of the Wenches and Anglers. [i.e., ‘the Diuell.’]
2. Zool. A British fish, called also Sea Devil, Frog Fish, Toad Fish, and Fishing Frog (Lophius piscatorius Linn.), so named from its preying upon small fish, which it attracts by the movement of certain wormlike filaments attached to the head and mouth.
1766. Pennant, Zool., III. 106 (Jod.). I therefore have changed the old name of Fishing Frog to the more simple one of Angler.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, i. (1880), 1. The Angler or Fishing-frog has … a rod, line, and bait appended to its nose.
