trinkerman

plural trinkermen

1. archaicA fisherman who uses trinks.

   The trinkermen said that their nets, which had a 1½-inch mesh, had been allowed since 1423 or earlier. The Lord Mayor said the trinkermen had not only destroyed the fry but fed it to pigs.

   2013, Liza Picard, Elizabeth's London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London

   3 more examples

   No Trinkerman shall stand for smelts till the 21st day of October yearly and so to continue until Good Friday following. No trinks shall stand to fish for whitings till Ember week before Michaelmas yearly.

   1873, Great Britain. Inspectors of Salmon Fisheries (England and Wales), Annual Report, page 26

   There were several different classes of fishermen, as ' trinkermen,' who used trinks or nets attached to posts or anchors for taking fish, and petermen, who used a broom in fishing, ' beating the bush.'

   1904, Henry Benjamin Wheatley, The Story of London, page 100

   I found a butcher wanting to sell, cheap, a nag and wagon, but when I had found the shop and then peered through the yard fence and saw them – a poor, broken-winded old horse and a cart with more holes in it than a trinkerman's net – I made a quiet exit.

   2010, Ann Featherstone, The Newgate Jig