poisonern.

c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Royal) Apoc. xxii. 15 Houndes, and venym doers, or poyseners [v.r. poyseneris; L. venefici], and vnchaast men.

?a1400 Apocalypse St. John: A Version (Rawl.) (1961) 200 (MED) Poisouneres [c1350 Harl. 874 Ac þe houndes shullen ben wiþouten & þe hunters þat poyson oþere & þe foule homicides].

1482 Monk of Evesham 83 They that were posynners and posynyd folke.

c1500 (?a1475) Assembly of Gods (1896) 704 (MED) Homycydes, poyseners, & comon morderers..came thedyr that day.

1563 N. Winȝet Certain Tractates (1888) I. 52 Poysonnaris of the peple of God.

1597 T. Beard Theatre Gods Iudgements ii. ii. 217 An Arabian doctor, a grand poisoner..going about to infect with poison his bridle, his saddle, his spurs, and stirrops.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) i. ii. 353 I must be the poysoner Of good Polixenes. View more context for this quotation

1625 K. Long tr. J. Barclay Argenis ii. xviii. 128 The King..bids him tell Poliarchvs; that hee is a King, not a Poisoner.

1693 J. Dryden tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires vi. 121 So many Mischiefs were in one combin'd; So much one single Poys'ner cost Mankind.

a1722 J. Toland Coll. Several Pieces (1726) II. 288 The Great chuse to perish by rules of Art, and to make a parade of their wealth, by the sums they lavish on exotic drugs, not content with enriching one domestic poysoner.

1742 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 42 2 The knowledge of this remedy was first purchas'd from a famous Negro poisoner, at a great expence.

1798 W. Render tr. A. von Kotzebue Count Benyowsky iii. 66 A poisoner is the most despicable of assassins.

1818 J. Keats Endymion iii. 152 Eclipser Of light in light! delicious poisoner! Thy venom'd goblet will we quaff until We fill.

1868 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest II. ix. 413 Having..stooped to the trade of a secret poisoner.

1889 Cent. Mag. Aug. 510 The cobra surpasses as a poisoner all of our American snakes.

1949 Dict. National Biogr. 1931–40 463/2 He secured the conviction of the poisoner Frederick Henry Seddon at the Old Bailey.

1983 L. Thomas Youngest Sci. xiv. 151 Endotoxin is really not much of a toxin, at least in the ordinary sense of being a direct poisoner of living cells.

1991 B. Okri Famished Road (1992) ii. iii. 100 They said she was a bewitcher of husbands and a seducer of young boys and a poisoner of children.

1905 E. C. Buley Austral. Life in Town & Country 23 The shearers' cook is always a competent man and supplies his clients with the best fare obtainable, utterly ‘belying’ the name of ‘poisoner’, usually bestowed upon him.

1936 A. Russell Gone Nomad 14 I had to take my turn..as ‘slushy’ to ‘Doughboy’ Terry, the cook—‘camp poisoner’, as we affectionately called him.

1969 L. Hadow Full Cycle 208 ‘I'm not much good at cooking but I'll try.’ ‘Never you mind about that. Up north we've got the best poisoners in the country.’

1598 R. Grenewey tr. Tacitus Annales xiii. iv. 183 Nero..commanded the poisoneresse [Agrippina] to be put to death.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Empoisonneresse, a poisonneresse, a woman that impoisons.

1914 ‘V. Lee’ Louis Norbert 93 Amazons, wits, saints, astrologers or poisoneresses, driving seventeenth-century..prelates distracted with their charms, their ambitions, or their crimes.