starmonger

English

Etymology

star +‎ monger

Noun

starmonger (plural starmongers)

  1. (derogatory) A fortuneteller; an astrologer.
    "Here, five Foot deep, lies on his Back, / A Cobler, Starmonger, and Quack; / Who to the Stars in pure Good-will, / Does to his best look upward still. / Weep all you Customers that use / His Pills, his Almanacks, or Shoes; / And you that did your Fortunes seek, / Step to his Grave but once a Week: / This Earth which bears his Body's Print, / You'll find has so much Vertue in't, / That I durst pawn my Ears 'twill tell / Whate'er concerns you full as well, / In Physick, Stolen Goods, or Love, / As he himself could, when above." -- Jonathan Swift, "An Epitaph on Partridge" in The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for starmonger in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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