gatherer
(ˈgæðərə(r))
[f. gather v. + -er1.]
1. One who gathers or collects (in general senses). Also gatherer up.
| a 1200 Moral Ode 265 in O.E. Misc. (1872) 67 Þe þat were gaderares of þisse worldes ayhte. 1382 Wyclif Prov. xxx. 1 The wrdis of the gederere [L. congregantis]. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 596 Lion-skinned Free⁓thinking..ten times slays the slain, and claims to be the sole gatherer up of thy [Liberty's] spoils. 1807 A. Knox Rem. (1844) I. 95 Of these [the ignorant, etc.] sects and societies have been, as it appears, the appointed..gatherers. 1868 Morris Earthly Par. i. 320 A gatherer-up of gold. |
b. esp. A collector of money, often with defining word as
rent-gatherer,
tax-gatherer,
toll-gatherer (now commonly
-collector).
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. xxx. 284 Rasers of the fals tax, And gederars of greyn wax. 1521 Fisher Wks. (1876) 318 They that were the gaderers of this trybute came to saynt Peter. 1572 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 342 To appoynt two gatherers..for the same money. |
† c. A money-taker at a theatre.
Obs.| c 1600 in Alleyn Papers (1843) 32 One Jhon Russell, that by youre apoyntment was made a gatherer with vs, but my fellowes finding [him often] falce to vs, haue many times warnd him from taking the box. |
† d. One who gathers wealth (opposed to ‘spender’ or ‘waster’); a miser.
Obs.| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxvi. 59 Hud-pykis, hurdaris and gadderaris, All with that warlo went. 1564–78 W. Bullein Dial. agst. Pest. (1883) 133 The foolishe Prodigall waster, whiche commonlie succedeth the gatherer. 1592 Greene Groat's W. Wit (1874) 13 Ah, Lucanio, my onely comfort, because I hope thou wilt, as thy father, be a gatherer, let me blesse thee before I die. |
2. One who gathers flowers, fruit, or other produce.
| 1382 Wyclif Obad. i. 5 Ȝif gadreris of grapis hadden entriden to thee. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. vi. 29 The feld is the fundament of the flouris, and not the hondis of the gaderers. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 37 Celedonie is an Herbe..whose flower..dyeth and stayneth the gatherers hande. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 3 In Caucasus there are trees of Pepper and Spices whereof Apes are the gatherers. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Mulberry, The Gatherer must have his Hands clean. |
3. A collector of literary material; a compiler.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 13 [Þey] cleped him a gaderere of old wrytynges [L. compilator veterum]. 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 183 He hath not redd the place in Augustine him selfe, but taketh it out of some collectour or gatherer. 1624 Wotton Archit. Pref., I am but a gatherer and disposer of other men's stuffe. 1853 Trench Proverbs 10 Many collections include whatever brief sayings their gatherers have anywhere met with. |
4. techn. a. Bookbinding. An operative who collects the sheets of a book in their proper order.
b. Glass-making. (See
quots.)
| a. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc. II. 348 The Gatherer takes it [a Sheet] off with his Right Hand. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. 959/2 A more convenient way is to arrange the signatures on a long straight table..so that the gatherers may follow each other. |
| b. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts etc. 578 One, called a gatherer, dips the end of an iron tube..into the pot of melted metal. 1888 Daily News 14 Feb. 6/6 In the ordinary process of bottle-blowing the..‘gatherer’, as he is called, gathers a charge of the molten metal from the furnace on the end of a blow-pipe. |
5. One of the front teeth of a horse.
| 1696 Sir W. Hope tr. Solleysel's Parf. Mareschal i. v. 19 There groweth then in the place of these four Foal-teeth which fell, four others which are called Nippers or Gatherers. 1797 Sporting Mag. X. 295 Gatherers, the two fore teeth. 1847–78 Halliwell, Gatherers, a horse's teeth by which he draws his food into his mouth. |