meecher

English

Etymology 1

meech +‎ -er

Noun

meecher (plural meechers)

1. A loiterer; One who goes where he or she does not belong and avoids what he or she should be doing
   • 1923, Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards, The Squire, page 65:

     She went straight into high-sterics, and no wonder; any Christian would, and a Christian Emmeline is, though a meecher from her cradle and will be to her casket.

   • 1951, Paul Blanshard -, Communism, democracy, and Catholic power, page 123:

     "Why," he asked, "have we produced a group of meechers and propagandists, who are Catholics, however nominal, before they are people, and whose principal concern seems to be not to write truly but to win ecclesiastical approbation?"

   • 1985, Alexander Russo, Profiles on Women Artists, page 244:

     Uriah Heep is a meecher.

   • 2005, James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: A Death in the Family, & Shorter Fiction, page 266:

     But it did and does seem better to shout a few obvious facts (they can never be 'obvious' enough) than to meech. The meechers will say, Yes, but do you realize all (or any) of the obstacles, presuming you are (in general) a little more right than merely raving?

Etymology 2

Eye dialect

Verb

meecher

1. Pronunciation spelling of meet you.
   • 1904, Henry Wallace Phillips, Mr. Scraggs:

     As the Major entered I observed upon his person a kind of uprightness that no sober man ever had, varied with quick little steps sideways, for no good visible reason, and when he comes up to the counter he grabs it with both hands and says, ' How do—gla' meecher—hot, ain't it?

   • 1980, Dudley McCarthy, The Fate of O'Loughlin, page 284:

     Very pleased ter meecher, Steve.

   • 2005, Carola Dunn, Fall of a Philanderer:

     Pleased to meecher, I don't think.

Anagrams

• chereme