subs. (old).—1.  A pig; a GRUNTING-CHEAT (q.v.). In quot. 1652 = pork. For synonyms, see SOW’S BABY.

1

  1656.  R. BROME, A Joviall Crew. Here’s GRUNTER and bleater, with tib of the butt’ry.

2

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. GRUNTER. A sucking pig.

3

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. GRUNTER.

4

  1841.  The Comic Almanack, p. 266. And the squeaking GRUNTER is loose on the green.

5

  1847.  TENNYSON, The Princess, v., 26.

                    A draggled mawkin, thou,
That tends her bristled GRUNTERS in the sludge.

6

  2.  (common).—A sixpence. In quot. 1785 = 1s. Cf., HOG and PIG.

7

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. GRUNTER. A shilling.

8

  1858.  A. MAYHEW, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 267. One of the men … had only taken three ‘twelvers’ [shillings] and a GRUNTER.

9

  1885.  Household Words, 20 June, p. 155. The sixpence … is variously known as a ‘pig,’ a ‘sow’s baby,’ a ‘GRUNTER,’ and ‘half a hog.’

10

  3.  (common).—A policeman; a TRAP (q.v.); a PIG (q.v. sense 2). For synonyms, see BEAK.

11

  1820.  London Magazine, i., 26. As a bonnet against … GRUNTERS.

12

  1859.  G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. GRUNTER. A country constable.

13

  4.  (tailors’).—An habitual grumbler; a GRUMBLE-GUTS (q.v.).

14