▪ I. plater
(ˈpleɪtə(r))
[f. plate v. and n. + -er1.]
1. One who coats or plates articles with a film of metal, usually of silver or gold; often in Comb., as electro-plater, tin-plater.
| 1777 Birmingham Directory 5 Bewhouse, Thomas, Plater. 1798 W. Hutton Autobiog. App. E. 132 A buckle-plater sued O and M for a guinea. 1830 N. S. Wheaton Jrnl. 404, I went to the platers, where every species of silver and plated ware is produced. 1884 Brit. Alm. & Comp. 123 A working-man..employed as a silver plater. |
2. A man engaged in the manufacture or application of metal plates, esp. in iron shipbuilding.
| 1864 Daily Tel. 11 Aug., Upon Shoeburyness..the gunners and the armour-platers have pitched their camp. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. x. 194 The fitting, marking, and fixing of the outside plating are performed by a party of workmen known as platers. 1892 Labour Commission Gloss., Platers, skilled mechanics..who mark, shear, roll, flange, bend, shape, punch.., set, fit, and fix in place..the steel plates..&c., for the outside and inside and hull of a ship, or for boilers and bridges. |
3. Horse-racing. A horse that competes chiefly in plate or prize races (see plate n. 18); an inferior race-horse. Also fig.
| 1859 Lever Davenport Dunn xxxi. 261 You might have guessed, Master Grog, that she never could be a ‘Plater’. 1864 Admiral Rous in Edin. Rev. July 124 The form of the best race-horse in 1750 is inferior to those of the commonest plater of the present day. 1886 Sat. Rev. 6 Mar. 327/2 A veteran selling-plater who has passed through some ten or a dozen stables. |
4. A machine for calendering paper: see quot.
| 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Plater, a paper calendering machine... The paper is packed between smooth plates of zinc or copper, and passed between the rolls back and forth till the desired finish is obtained. |
▪ II. plater
obs. form of platter.