puller
(ˈpʊlə(r))
[f. pull v. + -er1.]
One who or that which pulls, in various senses of pull v.
1. a. One who plucks, draws, or drags (often with an adverb, as puller down, puller on, puller out); a plucker, a drawer; a gatherer or reaper; a rower.
| 1382 Wyclif Isa. l. 6 My bodi I ȝaf to the smyteres, and my chekes to the pulleris. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iii. iii. 157 Proud setter vp, and puller downe of Kings. 1623 Middleton More Dissemblers v. i, I was but a pumper, that is, a puller-on of gentlemen's pumps. 1844 J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & W. xv We were really good pullers [of oars]. 1849 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. X. i. 174 The pullers walk in the furrows, between the ridges. 1885 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Stabbed in Dark iv, It was a heavy climb, even with the pullers and pushers. |
b. In specific and technical applications: see quots. (Often with prefixed word indicating the thing pulled, as in fur-puller (fur n.1 10), pole-puller (pole n.1 5 c), etc.)
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxiv. ¶15 Though the Puller Lays on Sheets, Lays down the Frisket, Lays down the Tympans and Frisket, Runs in the Carriage, [etc.], Picks the Form, Takes off the Sheet, and Lays it on the Heap, yet all these Operations are in the general mingled and lost in the name of Pulling. 1861 Illustr. Times 5 Oct. 221 To each gang of [hop-]pickers there is appointed a pole-puller. 1890 Pall Mall G. 21 Aug. 7/1 Fur-pulling is hard and dirty work... At the best, the pullers can only earn 11s. or 12s. a week. 1892 Greener Breech-Loader 258 A rotating trap which simply defies trickery on the part of the trap puller or his assistants. 1894 Dobson 18th Cent. Vignettes Ser. ii. 198 He was his own puller, collater, sewer, forwarder, headbander, coverer, and finisher [in bookbinding]. 1898 Daily News 24 Sept. 10/6 Saw-mills.—Puller out for bench. |
c. Cricket. A batsman who pulls (sense 18).
| 1911, 1972 [see hooker1 6 b]. |
2. An instrument or machine for pulling: see quots.; in quot. 1542–3 † pullers out= pullings-out (pulling vbl. n. 4).
| 1542–3 Privy Purse Exp. P'cess Mary (1831) 96 A payr of wrought Sleves, & pullers out for an Italian gowne wrought. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 425/2 The Volsella, or Puller, or Tweezers..is an Instrument..by which they take forth a peece of a bone which is corrupt and moueable. 1892 Daily News 28 June 5/3 The pullers are stated to be fixed at the end of the rows, in suchwise that each machine is pulling over 50 punkas. |
3. A horse that pulls: see pull v. 9 and 9 b.
| 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 125 Mr. Wake rolled the thong of his whip round the stick, to be better able to encounter his puller. 1880 M. E. Braddon in World 14 Jan. 15 He's one of the best horses I ever rode, but a confounded puller. Mod. A capital draught-horse, a willing puller. |
† 4. puller on: a provocative of thirst: see pull on, pull v. 28 b. Obs.
| 1608 Healey Discov. New World 68 A seruice of shooing⁓hornes..of all sorts, salt-cakes, red-herrings, Anchoues, and Gammons of Bacon,..and aboundance of such pullers on. [1791–1823 D'Israeli Cur. Lit., Drink. Cust.] |
5. One who or that which attracts custom; spec. (N. Amer.), a person employed to solicit passers-by into a shop. Also puller-in.
| 1894 J. L. Ford Lit. Shop ix. 132 The Jewish old-clothing quarter that lies close to the Five Points is near by. The ‘pullers-in’, as the sidewalk salesmen are termed in the vernacular of the trade, transact business with a ferocity that can be best likened to that of Siberian wolves. 1928 Sunday Dispatch 15 July 14/3 Next to the Prince of Wales, Shaw is the best box-office puller in the United States. 1944 Sun (Baltimore) 15 Jan. 6/7, I wonder whether radio announcers are descendants of the Gay street and Harrison street pullers-in and the tray men of Holliday and Baltimore streets (circa 1909)... They had to pass a law to stop the pullers-in. 1955 [see cheese-cake 2]. 1958 N. Levine Canada made Me ii. 57 The cheap clothing stores—with the pullers standing in the doorways like prostitutes. 1970 J. H. Gray Boy from Winnipeg 199 Any country family that stopped to look at something in a window was doomed. The ‘puller’ would come out and sweet-talk them into the store. |