▪ I. mower1
(ˈməʊə(r))
Also 5 moware, -eare, -eer, -ere, 6 mowyer.
[f. mow v.1 + -er1.
With regard to the form mowyer, see -ier.]
1. One who cuts grass, etc., with a scythe.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 345/2 Moware wythe a sythe, falcator, metellus. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 120 Set mowers a mowing, where meadow is growne. 1632 Milton L'Allegro 66 The Mower whets his sithe. 1727 in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. App. ii. 118 The Office of Keeper of Bushy Park..and of Paler and Mower of the Brakes thereof. 1866 M. Arnold Thyrsis xiii, Where are the mowers, who..Stood with suspended scythe to see us pass? |
b. Prov. phrase. no meat for mowers: unsuitable to, or unobtainable by, people of low degree.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 342 Lais an harlot of Corinthe of excellent beautie, but so dere & costely that she was no morsell for mowyers. 1552 Latimer Serm., Septuag. (1584) 322 b, Therefore it [sc. this parable] may well be called hard meate, not meate for mowers nor ignorant people. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxviii. (1887) 179 To hope for hie mariages, is good meat, but not for mowers. |
c. mower's mite, the Leptus autumnalis.
| 1891 in Syd. Soc. Lex. |
2. A mowing machine.
| 1852 in Encycl. Brit. (1853) II. 279/1 Mowers and reapers must become as indispensable..as horse-rakes, ploughs and thrashing machines. 1903 Motor. Ann. 245 This machine is designed to draw mowers and reapers in the field. |
▪ II. † ˈmower2 Obs.
Also 5 moware, 6 mowar.
[f. mow v.3 + -er1.]
One who makes mouths; a jester, a mocker.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 345/2 Moware, or makere of a mowe,..valgiator. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxxii. 34 Think ȝe nocht schame, To hold sic moweris on the moune. 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. ii. li, Juuenall like ane mowar him allone, Stude scornand euerie man as thay ȝeid by. 1530 Palsgr. 246/2 Mower skorner, mocquevr. |
▪ III. mower3
see mow v.4