hop-picker
A labourer employed to pick the ripe hops from the bines; usually one of a large body who annually migrate to the hop-growing districts to do this work; also, a mechanical contrivance for picking, cleaning, and sorting hops. So hop-picking, the work of picking hops, which annually gives temporary employment in the country to large bodies of the poor.
| 1760 Engraving of picture by G. Smith, The Hop Pickers. 1777 Brand Pop. Antiq. (1870) II. 20 To the festivities of Harvest Home must be referred the following popular custom among the hop-pickers in Kent. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Hop-picker,..a machine for picking hops. 1812 Examiner 5 Oct. 629/2 Hop-picking completed. |