warper
(ˈwɔːpə(r))
[f. warp v. + -er1.]
† 1. One who throws, a thrower. Obs.
| a 1000 Riddles xxviii. 7 (Gr.) Nu ic eom bindere & swingere, sona weorpere. [a 1225: see knife-warper]. |
2. One who winds yarn in preparation for weaving, one who lays the warp for the weaver.
| 1611 Cotgr., Ourdisseur, a warper; a putter of a web of cloth into the loome. 1822 [see cording vbl. n.1 1]. 1825 New Monthly Mag. XIV. 259 Your warpers, your windsters, your weavers..no longer flourish and fatten. 1881 J. Bright in Daily News 17 Nov. 2/5 The warpers in those days, as far as my recollection serves me..were all women. 1891 Labour Commission Gloss., Warpers, those in cotton mills who ‘beam the yarn,’ i.e. take the bobbins from the winders, placing them in a machine, and wind up some four or five hundred of the threads, side by side,..upon what is called a warper's beam... Warpers, women employed in reeling warp yarns from bobbins on to reels, before they are taken to the dressing machines. |
3. A warping-machine.
| 1847 [see speeder 3]. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. |
4. A local name for the eel. Cf. wriggler.
| 1901 Shooting Times 22 June 21/2 On a certain river where the eel is plentiful, and many rustic anglers go forth to catch him with rod and line.., the name ‘eel’ is seldom or never heard, but instead he is significantly known as a ‘warper.’ |