plucker
(ˈplʌkə(r))
[f. pluck v. + -er1.]
1. One who plucks, in various senses: see the verb. Often with adverb, as plucker away, plucker down, plucker up. Also † plucker-at, one who pulls sharply at, or (fig.) carps at, or attacks, another (quot. 1463).
| c 1450 Oseney Reg. (E.E.T.S.) 15 Of this owre confirmacion agayne-sayers and pluckers a-waye. 1463 G. Ashby Prisoner's Refl. 193 Yef thow be ryght welthy for the seson, Many pluckers-at thow mayst haue. 1495 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 5 The plukkers uppe and takers awey of the seid weares and engynes. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, ii. iii. 37 Thou setter vp, and plucker downe of Kings. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 154 At which time let the Pluckers be nimble, and tye it up in handfuls. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) VII. xcvii. 416 Thorns..pricking the fingers of the too-hasty plucker. 1831 [see pluckee]. 1902 N. Munro in Blackw. Mag. Nov. 589/1 Tales of Fingal the brave and Ossian the plucker of harps. |
2. A machine for disentangling and straightening long wool to render it fit for combing: see quots.
| 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 144 After drying, the wool is removed to a machine called the plucker. 1844 G. Dodd Textile Manuf. iv. 125 When the wool is dried, it is passed through a machine called a ‘plucker’, consisting of a pair of spiked rollers fed by an endless apron. |