▪ I. diver
(ˈdaɪvə(r))
[f. dive v. + -er1.]
1. A person who dives under water. spec. One who makes a business of diving in order to collect pearl-oysters, to examine sunken vessels, etc.
| 1506 Sir R. Guylforde Pylgr. (Camden) 76 The rother..by suttell crafte of a dyuer, was set perfaytly in her place the same nyght. The sayde dyuer dyde all that busynes beynge vnderneth the water. 1555 Eden Decades 95 They had certeyne dyuers or fysshers exercised from theyr youthe in swymmynge vnder the water. 1622 R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 227 Eight negroes, expert swimmers, and great deevers, whom the Spaniards call busos. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth (1723) 27 Dyvers, and Fishers for Pearls. 1893 Badminton Libr., Swimming 99 If deep diving be often indulged in..a curious disease, known as ‘Diver's paralysis’ is likely to be contracted. |
b. An animal expert in diving. (Cf. 2.)
| 1694 Acc. Sev. Late Voy. ii. (1711) 90 This Bird is a Diver. 1735 Somerville Chase iv. 445 This artful Diver [the Fox] best can bear the Want of vital Air. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §455 Most of them [Ducks], too, are good divers. |
c. fig. One who ‘dives’ into a subject, etc.
| 1624 Wotton Archit. A diver into causes, and into the mysteries of proportion. 1654 W. Mountague Devout Ess. ii. iv. §3 (R.) Diuers in the deep of providence. |
2. A name given to various water birds remarkable for their power of diving. a. spec. The common name of the Colymbidæ, noted for the time they remain and the distance they traverse under water; species are the great northern d., the black-throated d., the red-throated d., etc. b. The little grebe, dabchick, or dive-dapper and other species of grebe. c. Various species of Anseres: black diver, the common scoter, dun diver, the female and young male merganser.
| c 1510 Barclay Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570) F iij, When shall the diuer leaue in waters for to be? 1552 Huloet, Diuer byrde. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. 341 The greatest speckled Diver or Loon: Colymbus maximus caudatus. Ibid. 366 The black Diver or Scoter: Anas niger minor. 1766 Pennant Zool. (1812) II. 213 The Dun Diver, or female [Merganser] is less than the male. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. vi. viii. VI. 98 The first of this smaller tribe is the Great Northern Diver. 1789 G. White Selborne ii. xlii. (1853) 272 Divers and auks walk as if fettered. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 321 Little Auk, or Small Black and White Diver. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. ii. ix. (ed. 2) 207 The great northern, the black-throated, and the red-throated divers visit us regularly each winter. |
3. A pick-pocket; see also quot. 1608.
| 1608 Dekker Belman of Lond. Wks. 1884–5 III. 140 The Diuer workes his Iugling feates by y⊇ help of a boy, (called a Figger) whom hee thrusts in at a casement..this Figger deliuers to the Diuer what snappings he findes in the shop or chamber. 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle v. i. Wks. (Bullen) IV. 133 A diuer with two fingers, a picke-pocket. 1706 E. Ward Hud. Rediv. I. i. 24 So expert Divers call aloud, Pray mind your Pockets, to the Crowd. 1887 Baumann Londismen p. v, Are Smashers and divers..Not sold to the beaks By the coppers an' sneaks? |
4. Something made to plunge under water.
| 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 22 The water-crackers, or divers, are commonly rammed in cases. 1820 Scoresby Acc. Arct. Reg. I. 186 This instrument which I called a marine diver..With this..I completed a series of experiments on submarine temperature. |
| b. 1884 Chesh. Gloss., Divers, the larger blocks of burr stone used for making river embankments. |
Hence ˈdiver-like a. and adv.
| 1791 Cowper Iliad xvi. 906 He, diver-like, from his exalted stand Behind the steeds pitch'd headlong. |
▪ II. † ˈdiver, v. Obs.
[app. related to daver v., and Du. daveren to shake, quake, LG. dæ̂veren, dâveren (Mätz.); but the phonology is obscure.]
intr. To shake, quake.
| a 1225 Leg. Kath. 619 Ha ne schulden nowðer diuerin ne dreden. a 1225 St. Marher. 16 Speoken i ne dar nawt, ah diueri ant darie drupest alre þinge. a 1240 Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 283 Tu þat al þe world fore mihte drede and diuere. |