subs. (old colloquial).—A visitor to London at term time; specifically one whose object was intrigue, knavery, or sport. [The law terms marked the fashionable seasons.] Also TERM-TROTTER.
1608. DEKKER, The Belman of London, H3. Some of these Boote-halers are called TERMERS, and they ply Westminster Hall. Michaelmas terme is their harvest and they sweat in it harder than reapers or hay-makers doe at their workes in the heate of sommer.
1611. MIDDLETON, The Roaring Girle, Preface. Single plots, etc.—those are fit for the times and the TERMERS.
1616. JONSON, Epigrams, 3.
| Nor have my title-leafe on posts, or walls, | |
| Or in cleft sticks, advanced to make calls | |
| For TERMERS, or some clerck-like serving-man. |
1628. EARLE, Microcosmographie, 18. A gallant … obserues London trulier than the TERMERS.
1636. SUCKLING, The Goblins, iii.
| Court ladies, eight, of which two great ones. | |
| Country ladies twelve; TERMERS ALL. |
1639. T. BANCROFT, Two Bookes of Epigrammes, i. 176, ‘On old Trudge, the TERMER.’
| Thy practice hath small reason to expect | |
| Good termes, that doth faire honesty neglect. |
