engraver
(ɛnˈgreɪvə(r))
Also 6–8 ingraver.
[f. engrave v. + -er.]
1. One who engraves; one whose business it is to cut devices, figures, or letters in wood, metal, stone, etc. Now often spec. one who engraves pictures on metal or wood from which prints are to be taken.
| 1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. (1594) 47 From what paterns doe Painters and Ingrauers take the fashion and forme of those Images and pictures. 1611 Bible Exod. xxxviii. 23 Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver. 1666 Pepys Diary 26 Mar. To see the famous engraver, to get him to grave a seal for the office. 1690 Temple Ess. Heroic Virtue Wks. 1731 I. 215 This Odin was..the first Engraver of the Runick Letters or Characters. 1705 Hearne Collect. 18 Aug. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 30 Cole the Ingraver. a 1779 Warburton Lett. Literary Property (R.), Could we easily think that a printseller or engraver should be able to obtain that for his baubles? 1815 Scribbleomania 192 (note), His engraver..undertook to procure a similar stone. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. vii, His eyes are like the over-tried eyes of an engraver. |
2. An engraving tool, a graver. rare.
| 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing vii. 371 The implements for this species of art are five or six engravers of various lengths and thicknesses. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as engraver student; engraver beetle, any beetle of the family Scolytidæ; a bark-beetle.
| 1896 Daily News 11 Dec. 8/6 In the first year..the number of students [at the Royal Academy] was 77..and four were engraver students. 1897 J. H. Comstock Insect Life v. 216 These smoothly cut figures are the mines of the engraver-beetle. Many kinds of these engravings can be found, each characteristic of a particular kind of engraver-beetle. |