Also 4, 6 loker, 5 locar, 5–6 lokar, 6 Sc. luker, 7 lowker. [f. LOOK v. + -ER1.]
1. One who looks, in senses of the vb. Const. with preps., as at, on, to, upon.
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & Flie, xcii. 181. You are the myrrors; that all lookers looke in.
1579. Twyne, Phisicke agst. Fort., I. lxxxv. 108 b. A diligent looker to the profite of the Common wealth.
c. 1580. Sidney, Ps. XXII. v. The lookers now at me, poore wretch, be mocking.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 17. Quhilke brig haveng 8 bowis, is ane gret delectatione to the lukeris vpon it.
1671. Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Rehearsal, I. i. (Arb.), 27. I have ever observed that your grave lookers are the dullest of men.
1675. Otway, Alcibiades, III. i. Wks. 1728, I. 39. An anxious Looker on this Tragic Scene.
b. With advs., as looker out.
1382. Wyclif, Ecclus. vii. 12. God forsothe the loker about is.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 2. If we wil, we mai calle bischoppis, locars up on.
1767. Pol. Reg., I. 363. The lookers-out have not been able to prevail on any man of consequence to accept [an office].
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lxiii. VIII. 140. The Peloponnesian fleet completely eluded the lookers-out of Thrasyllus.
c. Looker on, looker-on, one who looks on; a beholder, spectator, eye-witness. Often, one who merely looks on, without taking part. Cf. onlooker.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 22. Tearynge a sunder theyr visours … not without great laughynge of the lokers on.
1586. Spenser, Sonn. to G. Harvey. Sitting like a Looker-on Of this worldes Stage.
a. 1627. Middleton & Rowley, Sp. Gipsy, V. iii. 84. I all this while Stand but a looker-on.
1711. Budgell, Spect., No. 161, ¶ 2. To gain the Approbation of the Lookers-on.
1800. Windham, Speeches Parl., 18 April (1812), I. 339. Accidents to the lookers-on do sometimes happen at bull-baiting.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh (1894), 9. Every fool knows that lookers-on see most of the game.
1898. L. Stephen, Stud. Biog., II. iv. 128. As an undergraduate he was a looker-on at … the Oxford Movement.
2. One who looks after or has charge of anything (e.g., † children, cattle, land, a farm, woods, etc.); a guardian, keeper, shepherd, farm-bailiff, steward. Now only local.
1340. Ayenb., 220. Þe children of riche men ssolle habbe guode lokeres and oneste.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 2591. Þan mas he laddis ouire to lend & lokars of bestis.
1609. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb., Payd to the lowker of Moserd Wood xijd.
1793. Trans. Soc. Arts, IV. 49. Where my looker and family, with two or three labourers constantly resides.
1797. Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Beggar Girl, II. 103. Old Frazer … had … filled the office of looker at Castle Gowrand—a phrase that implicates the combined duties of steward and bailiff.
1806–7. A. Young, Agric. Essex (1813), I. 62, note. Leaving their farms to the management of bailiffs, whom they call lookers.
b. With prefixed sb.: An official inspector of (what the sb. denotes). (Cf. LEAVE-LOOKER.) local.
1835. 1st Rep. Munic. Corporat. Comm., App. III. 1627. [Morpeth] There is no election of fish and flesh lookers. Ibid., 1600. [Lancaster] Other officers of the Corporation are, Auditors,… Hedge-lookers. Ibid., 1484. [Clitheroe] Other officers are, Market Lookers,… Lookers of Hedges and Ditches.
1899. Daily News, 23 Aug., 3/5. T. Thornton, cloth looker, Briercliffe.
