wiper
(ˈwaɪpə(r))
Also 6 (9 in sense 5) wyper.
[f. wipe v. + -er1.]
1. A person who wipes; spec. in various industries, a workman employed in wiping something clean or dry. Also with adv., as away, out.
| 1552 Huloet, Wyper a waye of fylth from a mans body. 1842 Browning Pied Piper xv, Let me and you be wipers Of scores out with all men. 1875 D. Greenwell Liber Humanitatis 141 A wiper away of the tears that none other but he and God behold. 1881 Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 89 Glass Manufacture..Wiper-out. 1888 J. W. Clarke Mod. Plumbing Pract. (1914) I. 99 So that when wiping the joint the solder will not burn the little finger of the wiper's hand. 1889 Scribner's Mag. Aug. 220/2 (Locomotive) For wipers and watchmen. |
2. a. A cloth or other appliance used for wiping; in
slang use, a handkerchief (later replaced by
wipe n. 4).
| 1587 Acc. Mary Q. Scots (Camden) 59 For v ells canvas for butter clothes and wipers, iiij s. 1626 B. Jonson Masque of Owls 127 The wipers for their noses. 1685 Phil. Trans. XV. 1158 The fifth he calls the Wiper, supposing that by it they wipe off the honie from the flowers. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Wiper, a Handkerchief. 1841 Catlin N. Amer. Ind. xli. II. 63, I rolled it up with my wiper. 1870 Daily News 23 Sept., The women in Holland clean their steps with an appliance combining the brush and wiper. 1890 Sci. Amer. 8 Nov. 297/1 Another movement [of a soldering machine] carries the can body across the wiper, which removes the superfluous solder. |
b. = wiping-rod: see
wiping vbl. n. 3.
| 1826 Price List in Austin Papers (1924) 1369 To wiper claw for rifle..50. 1827 J. Kerr Let. 27 Feb. in Ibid. 1607 Thimble rod and socket end of wipers lost... 50. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. |
c. = windscreen wiper s.v. wind n. 32. Also
attrib., as
wiper blade,
wiper switch.
| 1929 Times 2 Nov. 4/7 The driver has an all-enclosed cab, with..a sloped adjustable screen, with a wiper, in front. 1942 W. Faulkner Go down, Moses 337 It was the youngest face of them all,..staring sombrely through the streaming windshield across which the twin wipers flicked and flicked. 1953 L. Durrell Balthazar iv. 67 The wind⁓screen became gradually snowed-up and he switched on the wipers to keep it clear. 1959 Times 25 Sept. 8/2 Wiper blades dry the screen and then park automatically. 1970 Motoring Which? July 93/1 On the 1800s and 1800Ss the lights or wiper switches collapsed in about one in four cars. 1976 H. Kemelman Wednesday the Rabbi got Wet xiii. 80 It was coming down so fast that my wipers couldn't handle it. |
3. One who or that which strikes or assails; in
quots. applied to weapons.
slang.| 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster v. iv, I could hulk your Grace, and hang you up cross-leg'd, Like a Hare at a Poulters, and do this with this wiper. 1890 Conan Doyle Sign of Four vii. 85, I have a wiper in this bag, an' I'll drop it on your 'ead if you don't hook it!.. Stand clear, for when I say ‘three’: down goes the wiper. |
4. ‘A severe blow; also, a sharp rejoinder or taunt’ (
Jam. 1882):
= wipe n. 2, 3.
slang or
colloq.| 1846 James Step-mother lxv. III. 144, I say, Jack, that was a wiper you gave me between the eyes. |
5. In machinery, a projecting piece fixed on a rotating or oscillating part, as an axle or wheel, and periodically communicating movement by a rubbing action to some other part; a cam, eccentric, or tappet;
esp. one serving to lift a hammer, stamper, valve-rod, etc. which in the intervals falls by its own weight.
| 1796 Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Weaving (1861) 31 The treadles are worked by ‘wipers’ fastened on the main shaft. 1806 O. Gregory Treat. Mechanics II. 11 A great forge, where the engineer..formed the wipers into spirals, which communicated motion to the hammer almost without any jolt whatever. 1859 Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Weaving 969 Over these treadles is a shaft carrying four double wypers containing two segments each. |
| attrib. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 152 The upper roller is furnished with wiper-wings. 1839 ― Dict. Arts 367 The wooden wiper-rollers covered with flannel. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 314 The steam is admitted both above and below the piston, by moving the slide with the handle of the wiper-shaft. |
6. A pivoted arm that automatically rotates through an arc to make electrical contact with any of a curved row of terminals in a telephone exchange; also, the rotary or sliding contact of a potentiometer.
| 1906 J. Poole Pract. Telephone Handbk. (ed. 3) xxx. 483 Opposite the lower part of each ‘bank’ a short arm is fitted, on the ends of which are 2 springs, which, when the rod is rotated, sweep over and under the strips of contacts, and are, therefore, called ‘wipers’... The circular ratchet teeth..enable the vertical rod with the wipers to be raised. 1926 [see bank n.2 10 b]. 1969 [see slide-wire s.v. slide- a]. 1975 C. D. Todd Potentiometer Handbk. vii. 166/2 Many different variations of the mechanical means which moves the wiper across the resistive element are possible. 1976 T. H. Flowers Introd. Exchange Systems iii. 82 In the L. M. Ericsson five-hundred-line switch, a stick carrying a set of wipers is rotated..to point in one of twenty-five angular directions,..then the stick is slid linearly outwards for the wipers to engage with one of twenty sets of fixed contacts. |
7. Comb.:
wiper arm = sense 6 above.
| 1933 K. B. Miller Telephone Theory & Practice i. 2 The subscriber,..by sending the proper number of impulses over one of his line wires, could cause the wiper arm of his switch to step up to the row containing the contact of the line desired and then..to step around to engage the particular one. 1967 D. Eadie Introd. Basic Computer xv. 348 A full-fledged analog multiplier..can be constructed if we take the pot just described and drive the wiper arm with a servomotor. |