clothier
(ˈkləʊðɪə(r))
Forms: 4–6 clother, 5 clothyer, 6 -ear, yar, 6– clothier.
[Originally clother; the form in -ier being apparently assimilated to words in which this ending is etymological: see -ier.]
One engaged in the cloth trade: a. A maker of woollen cloth; b. esp. One who performs the operations subsequent to the weaving (arch.); c. A fuller and dresser of cloth (U.S.); d. A seller of cloth and men's clothes.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 18 But hit beo [cardet] with Couetise as cloþers doþ heor wolle. 1377 Ibid. B. x. 18 As clotheres kemben here wolle. c 1470 Pol. Poems (1859) II. 285 Yt ys necessary to every clothyer. c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. (1843) 9 Waxechaundelers, clothers, and grocers. 1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 18 (title), Clothears, or makers of wollen clothes. 1538 Starkey England i. iii. 94 The Clothyarys of Englond. 1572 Gascoigne Fruits Warre lxiii, The clothier coyns by carding locks of wooll. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. (1843) 346/1 Leeds, Hallifax, and Bradford, three very populous, and rich Towns..depending wholely upon Clothiers. 1828 Webster, Clothier, in English authors, a man who makes cloths..In this sense, I believe, it is not used in the United States; certainly not in New-England. In America, a man, whose occupation is to full and dress cloth. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVII. 555/2 The master-clothier..employs in all the different processes through which the wool passes in the course of manufacture, distinct classes of persons, who sometimes work at their own houses, and sometimes in the factory of the master-clothier. 1869 Baring-Gould Orig. Relig. Belief 50 A tailor and a clothier. 1885 C. Mackeson British Alm. Comp. 94 In some parts of the country identical titles are very differently applied. Among the double meanings..[are] Clothier for Cloth-maker or Clothes-dealer. |
Comb. clothier-bee = carder1 1 b .
| 1864 Intell. Observ. No. 34. 281 The solitary clothier-bee. |