[f. STARE v. + -ER1.]
1. A person who stares.
1663. Boyle, Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos., I. v. 116. The vulgar astonishment of an unlettered Starer.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 20, ¶ 2. A kind of Men, whom I choose to call Starers, that without any Regard to Time, Place, or Modesty, disturb a large Company with their impertinent Eyes.
1767. S. Paterson, Another Trav., I. 338. Exhibiting their mummeries … to thousands of stupid starers.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, IV. 218. They regularly drew forth either the master or the man to make another starer at their singular proceedings.
1865. W. G. Palgrave, Arabia, I. 140. We passed down the street, lined with starers at the King and us.
1880. Browning, Dram. Idyls, Ser. II. Clive, 154. I’ll engage no glance was sent That way by a single starer.
2. pl. Eye-glasses with a long handle. colloq.
1904. Mrs. A. Sidgwick, Scenes Jewish Life, 135. His mother put up her ‘starers,’ and addressed Eva in French.
1905. Miss Broughton, Waif’s Progr., xi. 128. She sat with the ‘starers’ she had taken off lying in her lap.
