▪ I. sinker, n.1
(ˈsɪŋkə(r))
Also 6 synkker, 7 syn-, 6–7 sincker; 6–7 sinkar (6 Sc. sincar).
[f. sink v. + -er1. Cf. G. sinker (spec. in mining).]
I. 1. One who engraves figures or designs on dies. Chiefly Sc. (Cf. die-sinker s.v. die n.1 8.)
| 1526 Sc. Acts, Jas. V (1814) II. 317/1 Þe sayaris fe, and þe sy[n]karis of þe Irnis fee. 1582 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 481 The generall, maister cunyeoure, warden, sincar and assayer. 1605 Ibid. VII. 27 The Lords..commands Thomas Foulis, sinkar of His Majesties irones, to mak ane new greit seale. 1656 in Grose Antiq. Rep. (1808) II. 411 The offices of under-engraver and sinker of our saide stamps. 1674 in Dallas Stiles (1697) 110 Constituting the said T. W. Graver and Sinker of his Majesties said Mint. |
2. One who sinks a pit-shaft, well, or the like.
| 1708 J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 22 Perhaps the Sincker, (or Labourer) has..12d. or 14d. a Day. 1710 Act 9 Anne c. 28 §9 No Coal-Owner..shall knowingly employ..any Overman,..Pitman, Sinker, Carriage-man [etc.]. 1816 W. Smith in Phillips Mem. (1844) 81 These stony nodules the sinkers have called rock, but no regular rock has yet been found. 1862 Smiles Lives Engineers III. 51 Kit Heppel, who was a sinker at the pit. 1897 Daily News 8 Mar. 3/1 Fourteen sinkers.. were at work in the bottom of the Simpson Shaft. |
3. One who causes (something) to sink.
| 1632 Sherwood, A Sinker of poore people with exactions, oppresseur. 1823 Byron Juan xii. lxxxix, Meantime, read all the national-debt sinkers. 1867 Morning Star 25 Feb., Without Scialoja there is a chance for Ricasoli in swimming with the anti-clerical spring tides. The [ship-] sinker has been dropped. |
II. 4. † a. A weight for pressing cheese. Obs.
| 1568 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees, 1835) 282, x ches fatts w{supt}{suph} ijo sinkers, ijs. 1596 Ibid. (1860) 271, iij sinckers for to couer cheese. |
b. In a stocking-frame or knitting-machine, a jack-sinker or a lead-sinker.
| 1779 in 6th Rep. Deputy Keeper Rec. App. ii. 164 A Machine for Knitting without the use of Jacks or Sinkers. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts, etc. 652 Fig. 560, where both kinds of sinkers appear in section. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1237/2 The sinkers..are at the same time depressed, one after another, by the cam or slur above them. |
c. A weight attached to the chain or rope of a horse's stall-collar.
| 1842 J. Aiton Domest. Econ. (1857) 251 Have also a ball of wood called a sinker, as a straw wisp and all such slovenly expedients are said to be dangerous. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 127 A leather stall-collar, having an iron-chain collar-shank to play through the ring.., with a turned wooden sinker at its end, to weigh it to the ground. |
5. a. A weight of lead, stone, or other material for sinking a fishing-line or -net in the water. Cf. sink-stone 2.
| 1844 in W. H. Maxwell Sports & Adv. Scotl. (1855) 323 The loops in the lower baulk are loaded with sinkers of stone. 1866 Laing Prehist. Rem. Caithn. 34 Such grooved stones have also been found in Denmark, where they are supposed to have been sinkers for fishing lines or nets. 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 7 A large float and heavy sinker and a worm or minnow for bait. |
| fig. 1849 Longfellow Kavanagh xx, I perceive you fish with a heavy sinker; down far down in the future. |
b. A weight of lead or other metal for sinking a sounding-line, buoy, or mine, in water.
| 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 18 Rope supporting the sinker. 1892 Daily News 29 July 6/6 It occupied about five minutes to haul in his sinker and compare the indication of his tube with the scale. |
c. slang. A base coin; also U.S. a dollar.
| 1839 Slang Dict., Sinker, bad money. 1864 Slang Dict., Sinkers, bad money—affording a man but little assistance in keeping afloat. 1900 Flynt Tramps 342 ‘Give you a sinker (a dollar),’ I said. |
d. slang (orig. U.S.). A doughy cake, esp. a doughnut; a dumpling. Now rare.
| 1870 J. H. Beadle Utah 223 Our favorite dinner, when we could get the meat, was of fried ham and ‘sinkers’. 1903 F. B. Smith How Paris amuses Itself 48 The New York Dairy Lunch, with..its elevating Bible texts, and depressing ‘sinkers’,..would never make a success with Parisians. 1906 N.Y. Even. Post 10 Dec. 14 Without ‘sinkers’, corn cakes, cream puffs, ‘cookies’, and other standard foodstuffs at reasonable prices to appease the appetite between lectures, it is simply impossible to go on studying. 1926 E. Ferber Show Boat xiii. 268 The coffee was hot, strong, revivifying; the sinkers crisp and fresh. 1946 J. Irving Royal Navalese 157 Sinkers, dumplings. 1975 Amer. Speech 1971 XLVI. 172 Round fried cake with hole in the centre..sinker. |
6. A sink, cesspool, or drain. Now dial.
| 1623 Cockeram i, Lauatrine, a square stone in a Kitchin, with a hole to auoid water, a sincker. 1847 Halliw., Sinker, a cesspool; used in the neighbourhood of Spilsby. Linc. 1866 J. E. Brogden Prov. Lincs., Sinker, a drain to carry off dirty water, etc. Ibid., The rat has run down the sinker⁓hole. |
7. attrib., as sinker-bar, sinker-wheel (in a knitting-machine); sinker-bar, sinker-rod (in boring apparatus).
| 1834–6 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 747/2 The lead sinkers..being all fixed to one bar, called the *sinker bar. 1883 Century Mag. July 330/1 The drilling tools consist of the ‘bit’,..the sinker-bar resembling the auger stem, and the rope-socket. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2441/2 Substitute,..a short section of *sinker-rod having flanges to ream the hole and keep it straight. |
| Ibid. 1237/1 The wings of the..*sinker wheel..press the yarn in between the needles. |
III. A person or thing that sinks. Chiefly N. Amer.
8. a. One who sinks. rare.
| 1851 H. Melville Moby Dick II. lxxviii. 78 No sign of either the sinker or the diver. |
b. A sunken or partly submerged log.
| 1884 Redwood & Lumbering in Calif. Forests (Edgar Cherry & Co.) 95 The well matured heartwood of the base of these trees is so solid as to sink in water—hence designated as ‘sinkers’. 1905 Terms Forestry & Logging 34 Deadhead, a sunken or partly sunken log... Syn[onym]: sinker. 1915 P. B. Kyne Cappy Ricks 28 A sinker is a heavy, close-grained clear redwood butt-log, which, if cut in the spring,..is so heavy it will not float in the mill-pond. 1969 Marine Digest 4 Jan. 6/2 Ferry manager..blamed the accident on a sinker. |
c. Baseball. A ball which drops markedly after being pitched or hit.
| 1932 Baseball Mag. Oct. 496/1 Outfield skill depends a lot on the player's quickness in detecting whether it's a ‘sailer’ or a ‘sinker’. 1943 [see outcurve 1]. 1952 Sun (Baltimore) 19 Apr. 13/1 A baffling repertoire of sliders and lazy sinkers. 1967 Boston Traveler 1 June 31/3 I've developed a good sinker and my fastball and curve are moving. 1975 Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer 29 Mar. 2-c/5 He's missing bad with his sinker. |
Hence ˈsinkerless a., having no sinker (5).
| 1891 W. O. Stoddard in Arkansas Mite 31 Under that bank the sinkerless line carried..its little green prisoner. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 25 Mar. 2/1, I had but to bait my line and cast it, sinkerless, into the water. |
Add: [III.] [8.] [c.] Also sinker ball.
| 1960 J. Brosnan Long Season 77 It helps to have a good sinker ball, or some other special pitch that is consistently hit into the ground. 1985 New Yorker 5 Aug. 36/1 The Mets' win had been against the Cubs' experienced left-handed sinker-ball pitcher Steve Trout. |
9. Windsurfing. A very short board designed only for sailing in strong winds (as it will otherwise not support the rider's weight).
| 1986 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 8 Aug. 32/5 Unless you have tremendous natural talent, there is no way you can learn on the type of ‘sinker’ you will be wanting once you get the hang of things. 1987 Boards Mar. 28/1 He..returned home the proud possessor of a locally custom made sinker. 1989 C. Boden Successful Windsurfing 11 There is no point in buying a sinker unless you regularly sail in winds of force 5 and over. |
▪ II. sinker, n.2 Bot.
(ˈsɪŋkə(r))
Also 9 senker.
[a. G. senker process, shoot, now assimilated to sinker n.1]
A process of the root system of a mistletoe that grows radially into the tissues of the stem of the host.
| 1863 J. Harley in Trans. Linn. Soc. XXIV. 176 The young plant [sc. mistletoe] first sends into the bark of the nourishing plant a single root, sucker, or senker. 1894 Somerville & Ward tr. Hartig's Dis. Trees i. 27 Once a year, very seldom twice, often only each alternate year, a ‘sinker’ originates on the inner side of the cortex-root near the apex. 1938 J. S. Boyce Forest Path. xv. 347 From the cortical haustoria are developed the sinkers which grow radially through the inner bark to the cambium, later becoming embedded in the wood by the formation of new annual rings. 1970 W. H. Smith Tree Path. xxi. 220 Generally, sinkers are located within the rays of host xylem tissue, where they appear to grow coincidentally with the host. |