ˈwriting-master
[writing vbl. n. 13 + master n.1 11.]
1. A teacher of or instructor in writing, penmanship, or calligraphy. Also transf.
| 1582 Mulcaster Elementarie i. (1925) 62 The hole ortografie, which concerneth the right writing of our tung, will..help the writing master. 1646 in Roberts Soc. Hist. Eng. (1856) 407 Given to the writing mr., 2s 6d. 1678 Danson in Marvell Def. John Howe 126 With a Writing-Master's directing his Scholars hand. 1710 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 12 Nov., That is a common caution that writing-masters give their scholars. 1754 G. Bickham (title), The English Monarchical Writing-Master. A new county copy-book. 1812 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) I. vi. 182 ‘Patience is a virtue,’ was my writing-master's favourite copy. 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. ii. xi, In the college school. There certainly was a writing-master. |
2. The yellow-hammer, Emberiza citrinella.
| 1875 G. C. Davies Rambles xxxii. 231 Yellowhammers or ‘writing masters’, as the country lads sometimes call them, from the scribblings on the egg shells. |