1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Size ... If a man asks you to sup he treats you: if TO SIZE, you pay for what you eat, liquors only being provided by the inviter.
1853. Bristed, Eng. Univ., 19. Soup, pastry, and cheese can be SIZED FOR.
Sizer (or Sizar), subs. (Cambridge).—A poor scholar. They were elected annually; paid rent for rooms and other fees on a lower scale than ordinary students; and got their dinners including sizings (see Size, subs. and verb) from what was left at the Upper or Fellows’ table, free, or nearly so. They were equivalent to the BATTLERS (q.v.) or SERVITORS (q.v.) of Oxford.
1574. [R. W. Church, Spenser (1888), ch. i. p. 9.] On the 20th of May, he was admitted SIZAR, or serving clerk at Pembroke Hall.
1670. J. Eachard, Contempt of the Clergy [Arber’s Garner, vol. vii. p. 257]. They took therefore, heretofore, a very good method to prevent SIZARS overheating their brains. Bed-making, chamber-sweeping, and water-fetching were doubtless great preservatives against too much vain philosophy.
1779. Johnson, Life of Milton, Par. 7. He was ... removed in the beginning of his sixteenth year to Christ’s College in Cambridge, where he entered a SIZAR, Feb. 12, 1624.
1820. Lamb, Elia (Oxford in the Long Vacation). In moods of humility I can be a SIZAR, or a Servitor. When the peacock vein rises, I strut a Gentleman Commoner.
1840. Lytton, Money, ii. 3. I was put to school—sent to college, a SIZAR. Do you know what a SIZAR is? In pride he is a gentleman—in knowledge he is a scholar—and he crawls about, amidst gentlemen and scholars, with the livery of a pauper on his back!
1847. Halliwell, Archaic Words, s.v. Sizer.... A student at Cambridge whose expenses for living are partially provided by the College, originally a servitor, as serving one of the Fellows. Each Fellow of a College had one servitor allotted to him.
1857. Moncrieff, Bashful Man, ii. 4. Collegian. Who’s that fat gentleman that’s just got in? Coachman. That fat gentleman’s a SIZER from Corpus.