pelter

From pelt +‎ -er.

• Rhymes: -ɛltə(ɹ)

pelter (plural pelters)

1. One who pelts.
   • 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 53:

     With this mighty resolution framed and glassed, and hung over his bed, along with a pleasing representation of a gleaming eye, bearing the legend, "Thou, God, seest me," he managed by bearing himself humbly among his fellows, or rather, by having humility thrust upon him, to avert for a period such calamity as doth befall the Sunday swimmer, the fruit stealer, the school wagger, the root smoker, the Chinaman pelter, and the window smasher.

   • 1915, H. G. Wells, The Research Magnificent:

     Sketching is always a peltable or mobable offence, as being contrary to the Koran, and sitting down tempts the pelter.

   • 2008, Outlook, volume 48, number 35, page 20:

     Young stone-pelters took to the streets and faced armed police who fired straight at them, killing several.

2. (sometimes figurative) A pelting; a shower of missiles, rain, anger, etc.
3. (dated) A pinchpenny; a mean, sordid person; a miser; a skinflint.

pelter (third-person singular simple present pelters, present participle peltering, simple past and past participle peltered)

1. (dialect or nonstandard) To pelt.
   • 1862, C. Clough Robinson, The Dialect of Leeds and Its Neighbourhood, page 383:

     A person is "peltered" when he is subjected to a shower of stones, a shower of hail-stones, or a shower of anything. "Naay, gi'e ower peltering — one at a time! that's enew."

   • 1923, Petr Nikolaevich Krasnov, From the Two-headed Eagle to the Red Flag, 1894-1921, page 96:

     Suddenly Iliin's machine-gun started rattling, peltering the columns, and a second machine-gun followed suit, whilst the Cossacks opened a continuous fire from all sides, seconded by the third, fith and second squadrons.

   • c. 1933, Erskine Caldwell, Country Full of Swedes:

     Chips as big as dinner plates were flying across the lawn and peltering the house like a gang of boys stoning telephone insulators.

• petrel