songster

Noun

songster (plural songsters)

1. A man who sings songs, especially as a profession; a male singer.
   • In the leading article in this week's Publishers' Weekly a poet utters the complaints and defines the encouragements to be found in a materialistic world by its unthanked songsters.1932 April 9, Isidor Schneider, “Hard Luck Of Poets”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 11 Feb 2026
2. An adult chorister in the Salvation Army.
   • A member of a Salvation Army family, she had been a songster accompanying the band around the streets of Chelmsford where she lived with her parents.2012, Kevin Turton, Northamptonshire Murders, page 13
   • On a later occasion he returned to the theme of keeping the individuality of Salvation Army music, and resisting the temptation for songster brigades to imitate chapel and mission choirs.2011, Gordon Cox, The Musical Salvationist, page 173
3. A male songbird.
   • The woodcock, the snipe, and other nocturnal birds were all gone to rest; but the merry songsters of the wood now filled the air with their jubilee; the nutcracker began his monotonous clattering, the chaffinches and the wrens sang high in the sky, the blackcock scolded and blustered loudly, the...1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 89
4. (formal) One who writes songs.
5. (US) A book of songs; songbook.
   • Because the Jew was often compelled to sing and dance to a fixed Mah Yafit melody at the wild orgies of the paritzim (wealthy Polish landowners), many deliberately discontinued singing Mah Yafit, thus causing the text to be removed from numerous Siddurim and songsters in the early 1900s.1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 234