▪ I. † ˈscaler1 Obs.
[f. scale n.1 + -er1.]
A manufacturer of scales.
| 1415 in York Myst. Introd. p. xxiii, Cuttellers..Blade⁓smyth..Shethers..Scalers. |
▪ II. scaler2
(ˈskeɪlə(r))
[f. scale v.2 + -er1.]
1. One who removes scales or scale from fish, boilers, etc.
| 1611 Cotgr., Escailleur, a skaler, piller, shaler of. 1728 Rutty Tin-Plates in Phil. Trans. XXXV. 635 This..is kept as much a Secret by the Blancher, as the acid eroding Menstruum is by the Scaler. 1892 Eastern Morn. News (Hull) 1 June 4/8 Henry Toyne, boiler scaler. |
2. An instrument for removing scales or scale.
| 1881 Coleman Dental Surg. & Pathol. xvi. 290 A..removal of all salivary deposition from the exposed fangs of the teeth..can only be effected by very narrow sharp scalers. 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Scaler, a dentist's tool for removing scale or tartar from teeth. 1891 Century Dict., Scaler, an instrument resembling a currycomb and usually made of tin, used for removing scales from fish. |
3. Austral. and N.Z. slang. (See quots.)
| 1924 Truth (Sydney) 27 Apr. 6 Scaler, a fraud. c 1926 ‘Mixer’ Transport Workers' Song Bk. 5 (title) The Scaler... He waits until his dues are due, The bloke who does a scale. 1932 C. Wills Rhymes of Sydney (1933) 13 See the shoppers, toppers, tabs, Scalers by the score, Hopping off, Dropping off, Darting into shore. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. v. 106 A scaler is a person who rides in a vehicle without paying, or one who decamps with money with which he has been entrusted. |
▪ III. scaler3
(ˈskeɪlə(r))
[f. scale v.3 + -er1.]
1. One who scales a wall or a mountain.
| 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 525 Martyn Godfrey called the scaler. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Escalador, a scaler, a pilferer, Scalarum conscensor. 1600 Fairfax Tasso xvii. xxxi, Brimarte the scaler [orig. espugnator de le città]. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 99 Upon the Top they have piled spiked Timber to annoy the Scalers. 1862 Thornbury Turner I. 315 Jove hates the old scalers of heaven's walls. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 461 Nose-bleeding..which befell the first scalers of Mont-Blanc. |
2. Lumber-trade. One who scales or measures logs.
| 1887 Contemp. Rev. May 762 Each district is supplied with its Corps of State inspectors, ‘scalers’, &c. 1893 Scribner's Mag. June 710/1 The logs..measured by the quick-witted scaler. |
3. One who uses a scale in surveying.
| 1840 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. Dec. 406/1 By allowing two young hands to figure for each scaler, they check one another. |
4. An electronic pulse-counter, suitable for high count-rates, in which a display or recording device is actuated after a fixed number of pulses has been received and added electronically.
| 1945 H. D. Smyth Atomic Energy for Military Purposes 1939–45 140 The scaler was set at zero. 1953 Sci. Amer. Mar. 105/3 As a series of pulses flows into the scaler a voltage builds up step by step... When the cut off point is reached, the tube begins to conduct and the condenser discharges, sending a single pulse from the tube's output. 1964 Analytical Chem. XXXVI. 2221/1 Development of the pipping scaler was stimulated by..experimental work in which it was necessary to determine time vs. concentration curves having a duration of a second or less. 1977 N. Freeling Gadget ii. 87 That's a PM—sorry, photo⁓multiplier tube... Sends signals here, to the amplifier, through here, that's the discriminator, to here, the scaler. 1980 J. W. Hill Intermediate Physics xxiii. 220 These are connected to about 400V obtained usually from a scaler, a piece of electronic apparatus which can count very rapidly using either ‘dekatrons’ or a digital display. |