wassailern.

1637 J. Milton Comus 7 I should be loath To meet the rudenesse, and swill'd insolence Of such late Wassailers.

1796 S. T. Coleridge Relig. Musings in Poems Var. Subj. 159 O pale-eyed Form, The victim of seduction,..Who in loath'd orgies with lewd wassailers Must gaily laugh, while [etc.].

1821 Ld. Byron Sardanapalus ii. i. 72 Sar. And you will join us at the banquet? Sal. Sire, Dispense with me—I am no wassailer.

1844 B. Disraeli Coningsby II. v. ii. 234 A rather boisterous party of wassailers who had been celebrating at Buckhurst's rooms the triumph of ‘Eton Statesmen’.

1882 Standard 18 Feb. 5/2 Christopher North pictures the wassailer of the ‘Noctes Ambrosianæ’ as revelling in a plenitude of Pandores.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Wassellers..such as in the Country go about from House to House, during the Festival of Christmas, and sing Catches for Drink or other small Boon.

1817 N. Drake Shakspeare I. vi. 130 The persons thus accompanying the Wassal bowl, especially those who danced and played, were called Wassailers.

1912 J. B. Partridge in Folk-lore XXIII. 455 Wassailers still go round at Randwick, Woodchester, [etc.].., and probably many other villages [in Gloucestershire].