Definition of "wooer"

Penelope for her Vliſſes ſake,Deuiz’d a Web her wooers to deceaue:in which the worke that ſhe all day did makethe ſame at night ſhe did againe vnreaue,

1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet XXIII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby; reprinted in Amoretti and Epithalamion (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas […], 1927,

Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]

She wrote such a widow-like refusal when she went from me, as might not exclude hope in any other wooer; whatever it may do in Mr. Tony Harlowe.

1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], page 120

Sally Leadbitter was vulgar-minded to the last degree; never easy unless her talk was of love and lovers; in her eyes it was an honour to have had a long list of wooers.

1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 8, in Mary Barton‎

Never hold your heart in painFor an evil-doer;Never flip it down the laneTo a gifted wooer.

1928, Dorothy Parker, “For a Favorite Granddaughter”, in Sunset Gun‎, Garden City, NY: Sun Dial, page 62

She was, I think, the only girl I ever called on. I wasn’t much of a wooer. When I rang at her front door, her mother seemed taken aback. I should have been the dry cleaner’s messenger, picking up the blouses.

1997, Saul Bellow, The Actual‎, New York: Viking, page 20