▪ I. dredger1
(ˈdrɛdʒə(r))
Also 6 Sc. dregar, dregger, 8 drudger.
[f. dredge v.1 + -er1.]
1. One who uses a dredge; esp., in early use, one who dredges oysters.
| 1508 Dunbar Flyting w. Kennedie 242 Rank beggar, ostir dregar, foule fleggar, in the flet. 1572 Lament. of Lady Scot. in Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 250 It is mair schame in burgh to se beggers Nor is it skaith in Crawmont to want dreggers. 1667 in Sprat Hist. R. Soc. 307 (Jod.) The oysters cast their spawn which the dredgers call their spats. 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6196/8 Edmund North, late of Wakerin in Essex, Oyster-Drudger. 1882 Standard 18 Feb. 5/2 The Whitstable dredgers feed, but do not breed oysters. 1887 Daily News 17 Feb. 7/2 The dragging up of the body by a dredger..[with] his dredging apparatus. |
2. A boat employed in dredging for oysters.
| 1600 Hakluyt Voy. III. 586 (R.) We..then had sight of a brigandine or a dredger, which the general tooke within one houres chase with his two barges. 1888 Public Opinion (N.Y.) 15 Dec., The Maryland steamer..has a two hours' fight with a fleet of oyster pirates..and runs down two of the dredgers. |
3. A dredging machine: see quot. 1892.
| 1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 29 A strangely shaped anchor brought up by the dredger the other day. 1871 Daily News 30 June, Any tendency thereto [silting up] may be averted by the steady use of dredgers. 1892 Labour Commission Gloss., Dredger, vessels fitted with iron buckets and machinery for deepening rivers or bars and keeping harbours or docks from filling up. |
▪ II. ˈdredger2
Also drudger.
[f. dredge v.2 + -er1.]
A box with a perforated lid for sprinkling powder over anything, as a flour-dredger.
(In quot. 1666, some think = F. drageoir, OF. also drageur, ‘a comfet box of silver’, Cotgr.)
| 1666 Pepys Diary 2 Feb., To London..and did carry home a silver drudger for my cupboard of plate. 1721 Bailey, Dredger, a Flower Box. 1775 Ash, Dredger, Drudger..the box out of which flower is thrown on roast meat. 1819 H. Busk Banquet ii. 189 The drudger, salt-box, cullender and skewer. |