Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dealer in fells or hides. Also felmonger.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A dealer in fells or sheepskins, who separates the wool from the pelts.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK Someone who sells or works with animal hides and skins.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From fell + monger.

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Examples

  • Then finding him so good and kind, and anxious to improve the age, I told him almost everything; how much I paid the fellmonger, and all the things I had been to see; and how I longed to get away, before the corn was ripening; yet how (despite of these desires) I felt myself bound to walk up and down, being under a thing called

    Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004

  • But here I was, now in the second month living at my own charges in the house of a worthy fellmonger at the sign of the Seal and Squirrel, abutting upon the Strand road which leads from Temple Bar to

    Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004

  • But here I was, now in the second month living at my own charges in the house of a worthy fellmonger at the sign of the Seal and

    Lorna Doone; a Romance of Exmoor 1862

  • Then finding him so good and kind, and anxious to improve the age, I told him almost everything; how much I paid the fellmonger, and all the things I had been to see; and how I longed to get away, before the corn was ripening; yet how (despite of these desires) I felt myself bound to walk up and down, being under a thing called 'recognisance.'

    Lorna Doone; a Romance of Exmoor 1862

  • I once read the letter of a contemporary of HOBBES, where I found that this great philosopher, when a lad, used to ride on packs of skins to market, to sell them for his father, who was a fellmonger; and that in the market-place he thus early began to vent his private opinions, which long afterwards so fully appeared in his writings.

    Literary Character of Men of Genius Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions Isaac Disraeli 1807

  • So I set out and rode to Ware, this night, in the way having much discourse with a fellmonger, -- [A dealer in hides.] -- a Quaker, who told me what a wicked man he had been all his life-time till within this two years.

    Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete Samuel Pepys 1668

  • So I set out and rode to Ware, this night, in the way having much discourse with a fellmonger, -- [A dealer in hides.] -- a Quaker, who told me what a wicked man he had been all his life-time till within this two years.

    Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete 1661 N.S. Samuel Pepys 1668

  • So I set out and rode to Ware, this night, in the way having much discourse with a fellmonger, -- [A dealer in hides.] -- a Quaker, who told me what a wicked man he had been all his life-time till within this two years.

    Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 11: June/July/August 1661 Samuel Pepys 1668

  • Commission of the Peace, and thereby lifted up on the Bench; which neither became him nor he it, for he wanted indeed most of the qualifications requisite for a Justice of the Peace: an estate to defray the charge of the office and to bear him up in a course of living above contempt; a competent knowledge in the laws, and a presence of mind or body, or both, to keep offenders in some awe; in all which he was deficient; for he was but a fellmonger by trade, accustomed to ride upon his pack of skins, and had very little estate, as little knowledge of the law, and of but a mean presence and appearance to look on.

    The History of Thomas Ellwood Written By Himself Thomas Ellwood 1676

  • So I set out and rode to Ware, this night, in the way having much discourse with a fellmonger, ” [A dealer in hides.] ” a Quaker, who told me what a wicked man he had been all his life-time till within this two years.

    The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Jun/Jul/Aug 1661 Pepys, Samuel 1661

Comments

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  • A dealer in skins or hides of animals, esp. sheep-skins. (In modern use, restricted to an operative who works skins.)

    August 8, 2008

  • While shunning is painfully felt,

    A tradesman must work with what's dealt.

    Though no one smells stronger

    Than a busy fellmonger

    It's the price that is paid for the pelt.

    July 5, 2016