granger
(ˈgreɪndʒə(r))
Also 7 grangier, grainger.
[a. AF. graunger (F. grangier), f. grange grange n.]
1. One who is in charge of a grange; a farm-bailiff; also, ? a tenant-farmer.
| c 1112 in Mem. St. Giles's, Durh. (Surtees) 196 note, Undecimus erit Graunger et Custos Carucarum. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 109 Soom grangers with goade iads restye be pricking. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 225 As if he had slain his Grangier, or Bailif of his husbandry. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 97 His tenants the graingers are tyed to come themselves, and winde the woll. 1689 Def. Liberty agst. Tyrants 4 To the end that God might be acknowledged Lord, and they his grangers and vine dressers. 1701 Cowell's Law Dict., Grangerus, the Granger, or Grange-keeper, an Officer belonging to Religious Houses, who was to look after their Grange. 1877 F. G. Lee Gloss. Eccl. Terms 140 The granger who takes charge of the garners and barns of a religious house. |
2. U.S. a. A member of a ‘grange’ (see
grange 5).
| 1875 C. F. Adams in N. Amer. Rev. CXX. 395 The time has now come when the Granger can be looked upon as a phenomenon of the past. 1896 Daily News 3 Nov. 2/4 The leading Grangers were afraid to go into politics. |
b. A farmer (see
quot. 1887).
| 1887 I. R. Lady's Ranche Life Montana 121 They call the farmers here ‘grangers’, as distinct from ranch-men or stock-men... The granger is held in low estimation by the stock-man. 1889 Century Dict., Granger, a farmer, a countryman (Humorous. U.S.). |
c. pl. Short for
granger shares.
| 1885 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 449/1 One has but to mention the word ‘railway’, and there arises to the mind a congeries of difficult questions dealing with Western ‘grangers’. 1897 Daily News 17 June 3/1 Other stocks reacted, Grangers leading the railways. |
3. attrib. (sense 2), as
granger law,
granger movement,
granger party;
granger road (
U.S.), one of the railways which convey grain from the Western States;
granger shares (
U.S.), shares in the granger roads.
| 1887 Contemp. Rev. May 700 The rash ‘*granger’ laws of more than a decade ago firmly established the principle. |
| 1875 C. F. Adams in N. Amer. Rev. CXX. 395 That *Granger movement, which..has played a most prominent part in the politics of certain of the North-western States. |
| 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. II. ii. xlvi. 202 The farmers associated themselves in societies called ‘Granges’..for the promotion of agriculture, and created a *Granger party, which secured drastic legislation against the railroad companies. |
| 1892 Pall Mall G. 31 Aug. 7/1 The *granger roads gained 16 per cent. in net. |
| 1881 Chicago Times 12 Mar., High-priced *granger shares. |