Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An inferior groom; a lad employed by the esquire to carry a knight's arms; hence, a mean paltry fellow.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An inferior groom or lad employed by an esquire to carry the knight's arms and other necessaries.
- noun obsolete A mean, paltry fellow; a coward.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete An inferior
groom orlad employed by anesquire to carry theknight 'sarms and other necessaries; acoistrel . - noun obsolete A mean, paltry fellow; a
coward .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Probably from Old French coustillier groom or lad. Compare custrel.
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Examples
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When I hear such base, skeldering, coistril propositions come from the counsellors of your grace, and when I remember the Huffs, the Muns, and the Tityretu's by whom your grace's ancestors and predecessors were advised on such occasions, I begin to think the spirit of action is as dead in Alsatia as in my old grannam; and yet who thinks so thinks a lie, since I will find as many roaring boys in the Friars as shall keep the liberties against all the scavengers of Westminster.
The Fortunes of Nigel Walter Scott 1801
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