▪ I. † ˈmounter1 Obs. rare.
Also 6 mownter.
[? var. of mounture. (Cf. provincial F. monture cattle on a farm (Godefr.).]
? A portion of the chattels of a deceased tenant which was due by feudal custom to the lord; cf. heriot.
| c 1500 in I. S. Leadam Star Chamber Cases (1903) 101 The seid Erle owght to haue by deth of his tenaunt a mownter and a heryott. Ibid. 104 For part of the seid heriottes or mownters the seid Erle toke vj Oxen and a hors. |
▪ II. mounter2
(ˈmaʊntə(r))
[f. mount v. + -er1.]
In various senses of the verb.
1. gen. One who ascends.
| 1609 Bible (Douay) Deut. xxxiii. 26 The mownter of heaven is thy helper. 1627 Drayton Agincourt, etc. 131 And though they to the earth were throwne, Yet quickly they regain'd their owne,..They were two Gallant Mounters. 1827 Hood Monkey Martyr vii, He went above—a solitary mounter Up gloomy stairs. |
2. One whose business it is to mount, fit, or set (anything) in place or order.
| 1747 Gentl. Mag. 101 Stick-maker, flint-maker, and mounter or screwer together. 1863 Reader 24 Jan. 101 Nothing but practice..will make any one a good mounter [of microscope slides]. 1881 Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 50 Scabbard Making (Leather):.. Gilder, Mounter. 1884 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iii. 19/2 After the chaser has finished his work, the piece returns to the mounter, who definitively secures the elements of the pieces in their places. |
3. (See quot.)
| 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Mounter, a man who lives by mounting, or perjury, who is always ready for a guinea or two to swear whatever is proposed to him. |