sizers
Preserved but no longer current.
Or SIZARS, certain poor scholars at Cambridge, annually elected, who got their dinners (including "sizings") from what was left at the upper, or Fellows’ table, free, or nearly so. They paid rent of rooms, and some other fees, on a lower scale than the "Pensioners" or ordinary students, and were equal with the "battlers" and "servitors" at Oxford.
Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “sizers” mean?
Or SIZARS, certain poor scholars at Cambridge, annually elected, who got their dinners (including "sizings") from what was left at the upper, or Fellows’ table, free, or nearly so. They paid rent of rooms, and some other fees, on a lower scale than the "Pensioners" or ordinary students, and were equal with the "battlers" and "servitors" at Oxford.
Is “sizers” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.