or leo-hunter, subs. (colloquial).—One who runs after celebrities. [Popularised by DICKENS in the Mrs. Leo Hunter of Pickwick.]
1862. Round Table, 10 Aug. Mr. Alfred Tennyson, fleeing from the bores and LEO-HUNTERS, has bought an estate called Greenhill, near Blackdown-Hill, Haslemere.
1878. Athenæum, 19 Jan., p. 81, col. 2. Keats, the obscure medical student, who died before a single LION-HUNTER had found him out.
1889. Harper’s Magazine, lxxviii. 417. One of the greatest dangers to all genius is that of being robbed of its vital strength by velvety-pawed LION-HUNTERS.
