opener
(ˈəʊp(ə)nə(r))
[f. open v. + -er1.]
1. a. One who or that which opens, in the senses of the verb. Also opener-up.
| 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Pref. 11 An opener and teller of the trueth. a 1555 Ridley Brief Declar. Wks. (Parker Soc.) 29 An opener of high mysteries in Scripture. 1637 R. Humfrey tr. St. Ambrose i. 1 An opener of the way to obtaine blessednesse. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. v. §17 Divers to the bottom of things, fair inquirers, and openers of eyes. 1872 A. J. Gordon In Christ iii. (1889) 55 Opener of the prison doors to them that are bound. 1883 Law Times 27 Oct. 434/2 The opener having replied, the question was put, and carried in the affirmative. 1911 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 149/2 Carl Mauch, another German opener-up of South Africa. 1946 Mind LV. 102 The great philosopher is an opener-up of new paths for the mind of man. |
b. An opening medicine, an aperient. Now U.S. slang.
| 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. clxxiii. 491 Iuy is a great drawer, and opener. 1626 Bacon Sylva §555 It is also an excellent Opener for the Liver. 1787 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 2) I. 320 A gentle opener and promotes perspiration. 1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 139 Openers, cathartic pills. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §91/5 Laxative food, loosener, opener. Ibid. §874/14 Openers, cathartic compound pills. |
c. An implement or device for opening tins, cases, etc. See also bottle-opener, can-opener, tin-opener.
| 1906 Daily Chron. 15 Aug. 5/2 An ordinary packing-case opener had been used to force the door of the case. Ibid., When the robbery was discovered the iron opener was found lying on the floor. 1912 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 144/1 The man who invented an opener for tins did well. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §75/6 Opener.., a jimmy. Ibid. §259/2 Key, opener. 1951 T. Sterling House without Door x. 113 She turned the bright red handle of her opener and the squat tin spun around under the knife. 1964 G. Lyall Most Dangerous Game i. 13 He had a bottle in one hand and an opener in the other. 1970 Which? Jan. 27/2 The tin which the openers found hardest to manage was the squared one. 1977 S. Coulter Soyuz Affair x. 110 You have a cold beer, Jim?.. There an opener someplace? |
d. The first of a series of events, etc.; spec. in U.S., the first game in a baseball match. Also opener-upper. orig. U.S.
| 1941 in Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang (1960) 368/2 A patriotic opener-upper, ‘Under the Double Eagle’. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §9/1 Opener, starter-offer, that which comes first. Ibid. §9/2 Opener, an opening remark. Ibid. §590/16 First act,..opener. Ibid. §675/5 First game of a ‘double-header’ [at baseball],..opener. 1949 Down Beat 11 Mar. 15 Frost is a simple but fairly bright arrangement with a good opener. 1962 John o' London's 19 Apr. 388/4 Measure for Measure..is a little lacking in lustre for a Stratford opener. 1967 [see double-header c]. 1967 Crescendo June 10/3 The opener, Lennie's composition ‘Morning Stroll’, should please all stride piano fans. 1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 28 Sept. 23/3 Queen's Golden Gails and the..Mustangs struggled through three quarters of the Ontario–Quebec Athletic Association football opener here. 1974 Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer 26 Oct. 5-D/3 Vaclav Nedomansky, the hulking center iceman from Czechoslovakia who will do his skating for the Toronto Toros, in town for the Coliseum opener Sunday night. 1976 Daily Tel. 21 June 8 The opener of the present trilogy from Granada's ‘The State of the Nation’..did little to allay worries about the unaccountable power exercised by Whitehall over Westminster. 1977 A. C. H. Smith Jericho Gun vi. 80 I'll tell you what's going to win the opener. You see that bay gelding? 1978 Rugby World Apr. 25/2 It was draftsman Bertranne's tackle, after half-an-hour in Paris, in the championship opener on January 21, that put Maxwell out of the game. |
e. Cricket. One of the two batsmen who open an innings.
| 1950 R. G. Strutt Schoolboy Cricket vi. 81 No. 3..can get on better with his brilliant scoring strokes if the openers have taken the shine off the ball. 1959 Listener 19 Mar. 517/1 The breakdown of our batting, chiefly of the openers. 1974 Observer 9 June 24/6 The other opener, Geoff Greenidge, had just flicked Lever for two fours round his legs. 1976 Dexter & Makins Test Kill 83 The Australian batting had collapsed on a wicket that the England openers found tolerably easy. |
f. Colloq. phr. for (or as) openers: to begin with; for a start.
| 1967 Boston Sunday Herald 2 Apr. (T.V. Mag.) 6/2 Joey hosts Danny Thomas for openers. 1970 K. Platt Pushbutton Butterfly (1971) xvi. 176 ‘Didn't they tell you at the plant? I quit.’ That was good enough for openers. 1970 E. Tidyman Shaft (1971) xi. 152 Shaft decided to tear the trap apart. He killed Caroli as openers, then went plunging through the door. 1971 J. Sangster Your Friendly Neighbourhood Death Pedlar viii. 106 It was Walpole calling from London. ‘I thought you were being hanged,’ he said for openers. 1974 P. Erdman Silver Bears iv. 54 I'd like to ask you a few simple questions..for openers, what's with this place here? 1976 Word 1971 XXVII. 58 These suggestions and observations call for professional reconsideration, not only of a fundamental definition of Speech per se, but of phonology, idiolect, lexicon, and Child Language as well, just for openers. |
2. A machine for opening or loosening the tussocks of cotton as it comes from the bales and separating dust and other impurities.
| 1875 Ure's Dict. Arts III. 965 Perhaps the most common description of Opener in use is known as the Scutcher. 1890 G. B. Shaw Fab. Ess. Socialism 72 A machine called an opener, by which 15,000 lbs. of cotton can be opened in 56 hours. 1895 Oracle Encycl. II. 189/2 From the willow the [cotton] fibres pass to the opener or scutching machine. |
3. Poker. (pl.) Cards on which a player can open the betting. Also fig.
| 1902 Out West Mar. 291 ‘I got openers, this pot,’ says he, tapping the rifle. 1909 R. A. Wason Happy Hawkins 114, I didn't hold openers, an' yet if I didn't draw some cards an' see it out, I stood to lose entirely. 1920 C. E. Mulford Johnny Nelson ii. 25 A round or two had been played when Big Tom drew his first openers. 1946 Morehead & Mott-Smith Penguin Hoyle 122 If the opener cannot prove to the satisfaction of other players that he held openers, his hand is dead and cannot win the pot. |
______________________________
Senses 1 c–f in Dict. become 1 d–g. Add: [1.] c. Cards. One who commences the betting or bidding. Cf. sense 3 below.
| [1880 W. B. Dick Amer. Hoyle (ed. 13) 203 The opener of the pot makes the first bet.] 1892 Ibid. (ed. 15) 184 If the delinquent opener discovers and announces his error previous to the draw, any one of the remaining players holding opening cards may..break the pot. 1932 Daily Tel. 8 Oct. 15/5 If the responder makes a minimum bid of One No-Trump or Two of a minor suit over the opener's One of a major suit, the first message it conveys is that he has not got normal support in the opener's suit. 1964 N. Squire Bidding at Bridge iii. 29 The opener must have a minimum of 12 points. 1980 A. J. Jones Game Theory 258 Working clockwise from the player on the dealer's left, each player has an opportunity to make the opening bet. The player to do so, known as the opener, must hold at least a pair of jacks. |