wooer

plural wooers

1. Someone who woos or courts.

   Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   5 more examples

   Penelope for her Vliſſes ſake, / Deuiz'd a VVeb her vvooers to deceaue: / in vvhich the vvorke that ſhe all day did make / the ſame at night ſhe did againe vnreaue, […]

   1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet XXIII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, signature [B5], recto

   She wrote such a widow-like refusal when she went from me, as might not exclude hope in any other wooer; whatever it may do in Mr. Tony Harlowe.

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], chapter XXIII, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 120

   Sally Leadbitter was vulgar-minded to the last degree; never easy unless her talk was of love and lovers; in her eyes it was an honour to have had a long list of wooers.

   1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 8, in Mary Barton

   Never hold your heart in pain / For an evil-doer; / Never flip it down the lane / To a gifted wooer.

   1928, Dorothy Parker, “For a Favorite Granddaughter”, in Sunset Gun, Garden City, NY: Sun Dial, page 62

   She was, I think, the only girl I ever called on. I wasn’t much of a wooer. When I rang at her front door, her mother seemed taken aback. I should have been the dry cleaner’s messenger, picking up the blouses.

   1997, Saul Bellow, The Actual, New Yorks: Viking, page 20

   Synonyms: sparker, suitor