▪ I. † ˈscutcher1 Obs.
[f. scutch v.1 + -er1.]
A stick, a whip.
| 1611 Cotgr., Verge,..a whisker, switch, or scutcher, to ride with. Ibid. s.v. Singlant. |
▪ II. ˈscutcher2
(ˈskʌtʃə(r))
Also scotcher, skutcher.
[f. scutch v.2 Cf. OF. *escouchoir, in 15th c. escoussour flail.]
1. An implement or apparatus for scutching.
Variously applied to: A hand tool for scutching flax or hemp, a scutch-blade; one of a number of projections on a revolving drum or axle in a scutching-machine; a machine (of various kinds) for scutching flax, silk, cotton, etc.
| 1766 Compl. Farmer s.v. Hemp A 3/1 The workman..strikes it with the sharpened edge of a long, flat, and strait piece of wood, commonly called a swingle hand, or scutcher. 1771 Encycl. Brit. II. 604/2 A lint-mill with horizontal scutchers upon a perpendicular axle. 1825 J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 379 A scotcher, revolving rapidly upon its axis, strikes the cotton with its two edges. 1856 Farmer's Mag. Nov. 379 It is grasped at the proper moment by the holding apparatus of the second pair of the scutchers. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2079 Scutcher..a beating-engine, in which floss and refuse silk..is brought to a downy condition. |
| attrib. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 347, GH and MN are the two scutcher frames. |
2. The part of a thrashing machine which strikes off the grain.
| 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVIII. 507/1 While the scutchers strike off the grain from the straw as it passes through. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 285 The essential parts of the thrashing apparatus, the feeding-rollers and the beater or scutcher. 1861 Smiles Engineers II. 110 Mr. Oxley is said to have afterwards tried the plan of stripping the corn from the straw by means of a scutcher. |
3. A person employed in scutching.
| 1847 Nicholls in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VIII. ii. 457 Having a slit..into which the scutcher slips the flax. 1891 S. Webb in Econ. Jrnl. I. 641 Average Earnings per Week in 1885 of Scutchers. |