stargazern.

1560 Bible (Geneva) Isa. xlvii. 13 Let now the astrologers, the starre gasers & pronosticatours stand vp.

1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. I3^v These starre gaisers, who teach that man is drawne to good or euill by the..influence of stars.

1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. vi. viii. 202/1 His Astrologers and star-gazers forwarding him with their vaine predictions.

a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1652 (1955) III. 63 Knavish and ignorant star-gazers.

1727 D. Defoe Syst. Magick i. iii. 75 The Eminent Dr. H—— may be call'd the King's Astronomer, or as the more Eminent Mr. Flamstead usually call'd himself, the King's Star-gazer.

1751 F. Coventry Hist. Pompey the Little i. i. 8 Star-Gazers, superannuated Strumpets, quarrelling Lovers, all think themselves authorized to appeal to the Publick, and to write Apologies for their Lives.

a1833 J. T. Smith Bk. for Rainy Day (1845) 65 A prognostication announced to my dear mother by an old star-gazer and tea-grouter.

1877 G. F. Chambers Handbk. Descr. Astron. (ed. 3) p. v The mere star-gazer who is an Astronomer simply in the respect that he is the owner of a telescope.

1938 C. E. Seashore Psychol. Music Pref. p. xi Then I was a stargazer; now I am an astronomer.

1973 J. A. Sappenfield Sweet Instr. iv. 137 The stargazer has only to scan the heavens through his telescope.

2014 Isle of Thanet Gaz. (Nexis) 21 Nov. 10 Stargazers in Monkton are taking part in a nationwide project to capture the birth of new stars.

1630 J. Taylor Bawd in Wks. ii. 95/2 Her skill in Astronomy cannot be small, for shee hath beene an often starre-gazer lying on her backe.]

1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Star gazer, a horse who throws up his head; also a hedge whore.

1890 A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang II. 300/1 Star-gazers, ladies of the pavement, who walk by night, not so much, however, to study the heavenly bodies, as to dispose of their own.

2015 E. Bear Karen Memory ii. 30 I guess sailors and merchantmen don't care so much if the slatterns and stargazers they visit are pretty so long as they're cheap, and it's dark in a whore's crib anyway.

1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Star gazer, a horse who throws up his head.

1831 W. Youatt Horse ix. 156 The back of the head being thus pulled back,..the horse..will become what is technically called a star-gazer.

1861 J. H. Walsh & J. I. Lupton Horse vi. 88 Experience teaches every horseman, who will profit by it, that both the stargazer and the high-crouped horse are to be avoided.

1958 F. E. Ward Cowboy at Work (2003) xv. 142 Once a horse becomes a stargazer, it is difficult to break him of the habit of holding his head too high with a bridle.

2013 Sun Herald (Sydney) (Nexis) 24 Mar. 50 A stargazer, Senta De Noche's potent high-cruising speed carried him to win number four yesterday.

1834 W. N. Glascock Naval Sketch Bk. 2nd Ser. II. 64 We used to set..moon-rakers,—star-gazers,—an' heaven-disturbers—Never ship could carry such a crowd o' canvas.

1900 J. C. Hoyt Old Ocean's Ferry 46 Foot by foot they added to the height of their masts, and above the ‘royal’..came the ‘skysail’, ‘moonsail’ and ‘stargazer’.

2003 E. Mathews Ambassador to Penguins ii. 169 As a whaler, the Daisy was never in a hurry and therefore possessed no such clipper-ship accessories as a skysail, stargazer, or studdingsails.

1843 R. W. Emerson Transcendentalist in Dial Jan. 298 The materialist..mocks at..star-gazers and dreamers.

1913 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Aug. 469/2 The enthusiast in art or photography had best beware in his peregrinations along the bed of the stream. If too absorbed in the contemplation of the picturesque or the reconstruction of the smugglers' day of excitement..it is all too probable that the careless housewife will empty a heap of potato parings on the head of the star-gazer below.

1919 Times 11 Mar. 8/3 He resented the action of the police, who, in ordering him to move on, referred to him as a ‘stargazer.’ In Canada this term was applied to a dreamer or loafer.

1942 Economist 5 Dec. 701/1 Mr Welles is emphatically not a star-gazer, and his description of the idealists..is much less than fair.

2012 New Yorker 3 Sept. 41/1 Margie was a hard worker, but also something of a stargazer, who wore long, flowing skirts and burned sage smudge sticks in the living room.