▪ I. † ˈlamber1 Obs. Chiefly north. dial.
Also 4–6 lambre, 5 laumb(e)re, lambur, lawmer, 6, 9 lammer, 9 lamar, -er, -our.
[a. F. l'ambre, applied esp. to ambre jaune ‘yellow amber’, i.e. amber as distinguished from ambre gris or ambergris.]
Amber. Also attrib., as lamber beads, lamber colour.
| a 1387 Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.) 26 Kacabre, i. lambre. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxi. 97 Bedes of laumbre. 1429 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) I. 417 A pare of lambre bedes. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 26 Take..Safron, þat it haue a fayre Laumbere coloure. c 1450 Bk. Curtasye 480 in Babees Bk., Bedys of coralle and lambur. 1550 Lyndesay Sqr. Meldrum 1008 Than scho passit vnto hir Chalmer, And fand hir madinnis, sweit as Lammer, Sleipand full sound. 1552 Huloet, Ambre called lambre or yelow Ambre. 1603 E. Fairfax Eclog. iv. in Eliz. Cooper Muses Libr. (1737) I. 368 Crown thy Lamber Horns with Corall Roses. 1610 Markham Masterp. i. xiv. 38 If the vrine..be..high-coloured, bright and cleare like lamber and not like amber. 1724 Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 107 Her locks that shin'd like lammer. 1806 R. Jamieson Pop. Ballads I. 181 It is your lady's heart's blood; 'Tis as clear as the lamer. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xiii, Dinna ye think poor Jeanie's een wi' the tears in them glanced like lamour beads, Mr. Saddletree? ― Br. Lamm. xii, A grogram gown, lammer beads, and a clean cockernony. |
▪ II. lamber2
(ˈlæmə(r))
[f. lamb v. + -er1.]
1. One who tends ewes when lambing.
| 1809 D. Price in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lxxviii. 71 Many lambs may be lost without its being possible to charge the lamber with neglect or ignorance. Ibid. in H. Stephens Bk. Farm (1849) I. 591/1 Lambing presents a scene of confusion..which it is the lamber's business to rectify. |
2. A lambing ewe.
| 1886 C. Scott Sheep Farming 80 At the end of the first week the second lot of lambers may be brought in. |
▪ III. lamber(ne
obs. pl. form of lamb.