▪ I. tracker1
(ˈtrækə(r))
[f. track v.1 + -er1.]
1. One who or that which tracks; one skilled in following a track or trail. In quot. a 1632, one who follows or walks in a path (obs.).
black tracker, an Australian Aboriginal employed by the government to track criminals.
| 1617 Carte Papers LXII. 438 If anie knowne Trackers bee vppon the track, the same tracker vppon reasonable hire of the seuerall tounes, shall followe the track vnto the end. a 1632 G. Herbert Country Parson xi. (1652) 51 The Countrey Parson, who is a diligent observer, and tracker of Gods wayes. 1640 Brome Sparagus Gard. iii. iv, He..followes pretty feet and insteps like a hare tracker. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. iv, The trackers of the deer. 1862 Melbourne Leader 5 July, The black trackers could only discover the tracks of six horsemen. 1904 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 674/2 The bloodhound is a wonderful tracker. |
2. Special
Combs.:
tracker ball Computers = track-ball s.v. track v.
1 5;
tracker dog, a dog trained to pick up and follow a scent,
esp. a police dog trained to track people;
cf. sniffer dog s.v. sniffer 3 b.
| 1969 Advance in Electronics: Proc. 16th Electronics Congr. 484 The input devices..vary from scheme to scheme but common ones are keyboards, light pens and *tracker balls. 1982 Internat. Conf. Radar-82 (Inst. Electr. Engineers) 306/1 A Maintrace Section..distributes the radar signals to the displays and an Intertrace Section..generates the video maps and provides interactive keyboard/tracker-ball facilities. |
| 1962 ‘J. le Carré’ Murder of Quality iv. 51 We've got to rely on laboratories, *tracker dogs and nation-wide searches. 1979 Sunday Express 16 Dec. 11 Police with tracker dogs will resume the search to-day for farmer's wife. 1984 Times 27 Feb. 8/1 Searching for..explosions with the eagerness of a tracker dog from the bomb squad. |
▪ II. ˈtracker2 [f. track v.2; cf. Du. trekker.] 1. One who tracks or tows a vessel; a tower; also, a towing-vessel, a tugboat.
| 1791–1823 Disraeli Cur. Lit. (1859) II. 143 The severe labour of the trackers, in China, is accompanied with a song. 1817 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 101/1 A Company in Leith have equipped a powerful steam-vessel, or tracker. 1864 Rawlinson Anc. Mon. II. vii. 174 As there was no room for rowers, trackers were engaged, who dragged the boat along by means of ropes. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 363/2 We were awakened by the loud cries of the many trackers, making ready to draw the junks through the swift waters. |
2. Organ-building. A strip or rod of wood forming part of the connexion between the key and the pallet, and exerting a pulling action:
cf. sticker.
| 1843 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. VI. 108/1 The machinery of the organ is so very extensive, that trackers, if placed in one line, would measure more than 5 miles. 1881 W. E. Dickson Organ-Build. viii. 95 Tracker. A flat riband of pine... Trackers..are now frequently slender round rods. 1887 W. S. Pratt in Gladden Parish Problems 435 The keys and stops operate an involved net-work of trackers, slides, rollers, levers, springs, and valves. |
b. attrib., as
tracker-action,
tracker-wire,
tracker-work.
| 1904 Athenæum 12 Nov. 666/1 Our author adds that the *tracker action ‘is dispensed with’. 1910 Times 16 Dec. 13/5 To have the organ taken down with the substitution of pneumatic action for the old ‘tracker’ action. |
| 1852 Seidel Organ 64 Below the back end of the keys..the sling of a *tracker-wire is secured. |
| 1878 E. J. Hopkins in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 485/1 If in *tracker-work..the total alteration amounts to no more than one eighth of an inch. |