purveyor

noun

1. One who purveys (“furnishes, provides; gets, procures”); a supplier; specifically, one in the business of supplying food or other necessary material goods; a provisioner.

   “The merchants are the purveyors of fine selections.”

   “I love the Sea; She is my fellovv-Creature; / My carefull Purveyor; She provides me ſtore; / She vvals me round; She makes my diet greater; / She vvafts my treaſure from a forreigne ſhore; […]”

   “But a Prince is no more to be his own caterer in his Love, than in his food; therefore Aurengezebe has ever in waiting two purveyors for his dishes, and his wenches for his retired hours, […]”

   “[T]he Spaniard himſelf came Incognito to them, and, vvith the utmoſt Kindneſs and Generoſity, vvas their Guide himſelf, and their Purveyor alſo, […]”

   “Riches, vvithout Honour, he holds empty Things; and once told me to my Face, that vvealthy Plodders vvere only Purveyors for Men of Spirit.”

2. (UK, historical)One who purveys (“furnishes, provides; gets, procures”); a supplier; specifically, one in the business of supplying food or other necessary material goods; a provisioner.

   “groom purveyor    yeoman purveyor”

   “Let therfore firſt and principall care be for competent prouiſion of victuall, namely bread corne, the vſe wherof is ſeene to be farre more neceſſary, then any other thinge and let there bee made three Purueyghours, or principall victuallers, to haue the ouerſighte, and ſurueighe of all victual, and make prouiſion of the ſame accordinglye: […]”

   “[Y]et some there be of that nature, that though they be in private men, yet their evil reacheth to a general hurt, as the extortion of sheriffs and their sub-sheriffs, and bayliffes, the corruption of victuallers, cessors, and purveyors, the disorders of seneschalls, captaines, and their souldiers, and many such like: […]”

   “[T]he Treaſurer and purveiour generall of the armie in Armenia for the late vvars of king Tyridates [Tiridates I of Armenia], […] vvas enfranchiſed by the meanes of Nero, for 120000 Seſterces. But it vvas the vvarre that coſt thus much, and not the man.”

   “The Queen's purveyors had been abroad, sweeping the farms and villages of those articles usually exacted during a royal Progress, and for which the owners were afterwards to obtain a tardy payment from the Board of Green Cloth.”

3. (figuratively)A person or group that promotes or spreads an idea, a viewpoint, etc.

   “purveyors of false information”

4. (obsolete)One who arranges or prepares something; an arranger, an orchestrator, a preparer.

   “That certayn servantes of sir Fraunces Knowles [Francis Knollys?] and other [resorting to his lectures] fell owte amonge themselfes, and were lyke to have commytted murther, and therefore he was suer of sedition and prevyer of unlawfull assemblies.”