wader
(ˈweɪdə(r))
[f. wade v. + -er1.]
1. One who wades.
| 1673 [R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 120 So great a wader in discoveries..might be..employ'd in groping for the head of Nile. 1855 Tennyson Brook 117 James Made toward us, like a wader in the surf, Beyond the brook, waist-deep in meadow-sweet. 1905 J. B. Firth Highw. Derbysh. xxv. 372 Muddy channels..in which a wader would sink to his waist. |
b. said of a bird;
esp. as the distinctive appellation of those long-legged birds (as the heron, plover, snipe, etc., constituting the former order
Grallæ or
Grallatores), which wade in shallow water.
| 1771 Edwards E. Indian Bird in Phil. Trans. LXI. 55, I judged it to be no wader in the water. 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) I. 32 Waders (Grallæ). These have a roundish bill, a fleshy tongue; and the legs of most of the species are long. The principal genera are the Herons, Plovers, Snipes, and Sandpipers. 1851 Richardson Geol. (1855) 312, 6th Order.—Grallatores (or Waders). 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Fate Wks. (Bohn) II. 325 Ducks take to the water, eagles to the sky, waders to the sea margin. 1905 Spectator 13 May 707/1 Another wader, rather smaller than the redshank,..which the present writer has not been able to identify. |
| attrib. 1849 H. Miller Footpr. Creat. xi. (1874) 201 Birds of the wader family. |
2. pl. Waterproof boots reaching above the knee, used by anglers for wading.
| 1841 J. T. J. Hewlett Peter Priggins I. i. 30 Mud-boots, waders, and snow-boots. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 58 Fishing Waders, very light, requiring no separate Brogues. 1904 W. M. Gallichan Fishing in Spain 210 Short mackintosh coats to reach the waders will be required. |