groom porter (gromporter)

Formerly, in England, an officer of the royal household whose busine was to see the king's lodging furnished with tables, chairs, stools, and firing, also to provide cards, dice, etc., and to decide disputes over games. He was allowed to keep an open gaming-table at Christmas. The office was abolished in the reign of George III. Nares. I saw deep and prodigious gaming at the groom-porter's; vast heaps of gold squandered away in a vain and profuse Evelyn , Diary, Jan. 8, 1668. IMG:content-2702.png:[blocks in formation] trench, ditch, moat, = MLG. grope, a puddle, a drain from a cow-stall, = Norw. grop, a groove, cavity, hollow, = Sw.grop, a pit, ditch, hole. Cf. grip2, a ditch, etc.] 1. A trench; a drain; particularly, a trench or hollow behind the stalls of cows or horses for receiving their dung and urine.-2. A pen for cattle. [North. Eng. and Scotch in both uses.] groopt (gröp), v. i. [Formerly also grope, groupe, growpe; I groupe, sculpe, or suche as coulde grave, groupe, or Palsgrave. carve. grooper, n. See grouper . grooping-iront, n. [ME. groping - iren .] A tool for forming grooves; a gouge. The groping - iren than spake he, Compas, who hath grevyd the? MS. Ashmole 61. ( Hall i well.)