▪ I. carder1
(ˈkɑːdə(r))
[f. card v.1 + -er1.]
1. One who cards wool, etc.; one who attends to a carding machine.
| c 1450 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 692 Carpetrix, a carder. 1514 Act 6 Hen. VIII, ix. § 1 The Carder and Spinner to deliver..Yarn of the same Wooll. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. ii. 33 The Clothiers..haue put off The Spinsters, Carders, Fullers, Weauers. 1725 Lond. Gaz. No. 6380/13 Charles Banton..Spinner and Carder. 1862 Athenæum 30 Aug. 265 Potters, grinders, carders, hacklers. |
b. A species of wild bee, Bombus muscorum; so called from its tearing moss into shreds for the construction of its nest. Cf. card v.1 1 b.
| 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 68 There were the buff-coloured carders, that erected over their honey-jars domes of moss. 1868 Wood Homes without H. xxiv. 463 Carder Bees..prepare the materials for their nest in a manner similar to that..employed in carding cotton-wool. |
2. See quot. Cf. card v.1 4.
| 1812 Gent. Mag. Mar. 282/2 Persons who call themselves Carders, from the instrument they use (a wool card) to enforce compliance with their demands for the regulation of the price of land [in Ireland]. 1833 M. Edgeworth Love & L. ii. iii. (D.) Carders and thrashers, and oak-boys, and white boys, and peep o'day boys. |
▪ II. † ˈcarder2 Obs.
Also 6 cardar.
[f. card v.2 + -er.]
A card-player.
| c 1530 Hickescorner in Singer Hist. Cards 251 Walkers by nyght..and joly carders. 1580 Lupton Siquila 94 There is not one dicer nor yet carder in all our countrey. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 308 ¶6 The Carders..never begin to play till the French-Dances are finished. |