Also sonnetteer. [f. SONNETEER sb.]
1. refl. To make (oneself) a sonneteer.
1822. Blackw. Mag., XI. 740. Shelley will henceforth rave only to the moon. Hunt will sonneteer himself.
2. trans. To celebrate in sonnets.
1825. Blackw. Mag., XVIII. 617/1. A prima donna of the San Carlo; sonnetteered by half the abbati and improvisatori idlers from Vesuvius to the Alps.
3. intr. To compose sonnets.
1841. Lever, C. O’Malley, xcvi. The man who has been the very veriest flirt with women—sighing, serenading, sonneteering.
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., I. 148. Rimers sonneteering in their sleep.
1899. M. Hewlett, Litt. Novels Italy, Master Cino & Coal, ii. To sonneteer is very well, but a lover … must live.
