Word.ws English Dictionary

costermongery

costermongery noun: the fruits and vegetables sold by a costermonger.

Noun

costermongery

  1. The fruits and vegetables sold by a costermonger.
    • France, after all, takes the attention first, in spite of the splendid and praiseworthy costermongery of the Crystal Palace.1851 October, “Our General Review”, in The American Whig Review, volume 8, page 349
    • I DEALS in costermongery, But in my callin' makes no noise; For 't ain't amongst the hungry As I cries taturs and savoys.1867, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch - Volume 53, page 209
  2. The business of a costermonger; the process of selling frutis and vegetables from a cart or barrow.
    • So he now rode like all possessed through the wares of fish and costermongery in the Naples market, making everything fly about as in a whirlwind; cackling and curses followed his course, angry fists were clenched at him.1894, William Foster Apthorp, Musicians and Music-lovers, and Other Essays, page 144
    • The occupations of waterside work, costermongery, basketmaking, paper-bag making, of carman and puller-down, fish hawker, and such like, belong to the very humble walks of life.1905, Alexander Hay Tod, Charterhouse, page 226

Adjective

costermongery (comparative more costermongery, superlative most costermongery)

  1. Like a costermonger: especially, rough, poor, or loud.
    • They may not be as bold and chivalrous as the shaggy Newfoundland, as lithe and crescenty as that shivering exile the Italian greyhound, as droll and muffy as the Isle of Skye, as sturdy and sagacious as the Spanish pointer, as vivacious and hearty as the smooth terrier, or as dogged a dog as the...1860, Walter Thornbury, Turkish Life and Character - Volume 1, page 39
    • Then there is a great deal in cravats, Ella—those miserable little black strings seeming costermongery, when compared with the expansive scarf.1878, Truth - Volume 3, page 378

Synonyms of costermongery

Forms of costermongery

comparativemore costermongery
superlativemost costermongery

Origin of costermongery

From costermonger + -y.

Questions about costermongery

What does costermongery mean?
Costermongery means the fruits and vegetables sold by a costermonger.
What part of speech is costermongery?
Costermongery can be a noun or an adjective.

Words near costermongery in the dictionary

  1. costermongeresses
  2. costermongering
  3. costermongerish
  4. costermongerly
  5. costermongers
  6. costermongery
  7. costermongress
  8. costermongresses
  9. costers
  10. Costerton
  11. Costes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: costermongery (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “costermongery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/costermongery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.