▪ I. chaser1
(ˈtʃeɪsə(r))
In 3 chasur, 4 chasour, chassar.
[a. OF. chaceür, chaceour (mod.F. chasseur), agent-noun f. chasser to chase v.1]
1. a. One who chases or hunts; a hunter of.
| 1470–85 Malory Arthur viii. i, As king Meliodas rode on hunting, for he was a great chaser. 1686 Voy. East Tartary in Misc. Cur. (1708) III. 187 The poor Creatures tired with the violence of their Coursing, came and fell down at the Feet of their Chasers. 1704 Pope Windsor For. 81 At once the chaser and at once the prey. 1856 Bryant Catterskill Falls xiii, There pass the chasers of seal and whale. |
† b. A horse for the chase, a hunter (obs.). c. A horse trained for steeple-chasing.
| a 1300 Signs bef. Judgm. 110 in E.E.P. (1862) 10 Palfrei, chasur, no no stede. c 1314 Guy Warw. (A) 3210 At his in he tok a chasour. 1649 Selden Laws Eng. i. lii. (1739) 90 The Relief of an Earl, 8 horses..4 chasers, 1 Palfray, bridled and sadled. 1884 Illust. Sporting & Dram. News 16 Feb. 563/3 A famous trainer and rider of chasers. |
2. a. One who pursues (esp. with hostile intent).
| 1375 Barbour Bruce vi. 439 The chassaris..ourtuk sum at the last. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. v. iii. 40 Then beganne A stop i'th'Chaser; a Retyre. c 1611 Chapman Iliad xxii. 167 He in chase the chaser cannot fly. 1822 De Quincey Wks. V. 118 My chasers, that pursued when no man fled. |
b. One who chases women, a woman-chaser. Chiefly U.S. colloq.
| 1894 Yale Wit & Humor 49/2 (Chess tournament) If our accomplished chasers ain't able to pinch that Harvard Queen without giving up one of our own ladies in exchange, we would respectfully ask what the university is coming to? 1934 J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra (1935) i. 26 If English had been a chaser Al would have heard about it. 1968 H. Waugh Con Game xviii. 147 George deserted her because he was a chaser. 1969 S. Greenlee Spook who sat by Door xii. 102 The women thought him an eligible bachelor, if a bit of a chaser. |
3. Naut. a. A ship which chases another. b. A chase-gun: see bow-chaser, stern-chaser.
| 1794 Rigging & Seamanship II. 337 Were the ship chased as good a sailer as the chaser. 1804 Naval Chron. XII. 71 Firing our bow-chasers. 1822 Scott Pirate viii, We mounted ten guns, besides chasers. 1918 Chambers's Jrnl. Oct. 699/1 Each U-boat chaser measures two hundred and four feet in length. 1957 Jane's Fighting Ships 1956–7 195/1 Ex-U.S. chasers..now rated as..inshore minesweepers. |
4. nonce-use. = chasseur 3.
| 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. IX. xx. xii. 224 He dismissed the Guard sent for him; would have nothing there but six chasers (jäger). |
5. A quantity of water or other mild beverage taken after spirituous liquor. (Cf. chasse2.) colloq. (orig. U.S.) Also fig.
| 1897 Daily News 30 Aug. 2/1 Everything was 50 cents. a drink, no mixed drinks, and no water for a chaser. 1905 N.Y. Even. Post 8 Sept. 7 Drinking whiskey from a bottle and refusing a ‘chaser’. a 1906 ‘O. Henry’ Trimmed Lamp (1916) 166 Eagerly gulping down the strong, black headlines, to be followed as a chaser by the milder details of the smaller type. 1932 J. Dos Passos 1919 162 Two guys from Chicago who were drinking whisky with beerchasers. 1941 Wodehouse Huy Day by Day in Perf. Flea (1953) 209 Give me one blow-out like that..and you wouldn't find me making a fuss if somebody added a dose of some little-known Asiatic poison as a chaser. 1956 ‘N. Shute’ Beyond Black Stump 49 He..took the glass of rum.., shot it down in one swallow, and followed it with a chaser of water. |
6. A small, light, usually single-seated aeroplane of great speed and climbing power, used in repelling hostile aircraft. Also attrib.
| 1915 Grahame-White & Harper Aircraft Gt. War 33 British pilots, having in view the pursuit of slower-flying German craft, have called these little machines [sc. the ‘Bullets’] ‘the chasers’. 1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings p. xxi, The chaser craft necessary to keep German machines from interference. 1917 Aeroplane 16 May 1244/1 The High Command of the German Flying Service instituted some months ago the system of mobile chaser squadrons, consisting entirely of picked fighting pilots. 1918 [see circus 2 e]. 1919 A. E. Illingworth Fly Papers 41 A chaser squadron of picked pilots. 1939 Auden & Isherwood Journey to War 37 Canton now had a considerable force of chaser planes. |
7. (See quot.) See also progress-chaser (progress n. 7).
| 1922 Turner & Wood Man. Up-to-date Organisation 171 Chaser is a progress man responsible for the progress of a job through the factory. |
▪ II. chaser2
(ˈtʃeɪsə(r))
[f. chase v.2 + -er.]
1. One who chases or engraves metal.
| 1707 Earl of Bindon in Lond. Gaz. No. 4339/3 Engravers, Carvers, Chacers. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 153 Enamellers and chasers of plate. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 371 Machinery has invaded even the art of the chaser. |
2. A tool used for cutting the threads of screws.
| 1881 Hasluck Lathe Work 46 The screw thread is originated by hand with the chaser. |
3. Metall. One of the edge-wheels which revolves in a trough, to grind substances to powder.
▪ III. ˈchaser3 Sc.
‘A ram that has only one testicle’ (Jam.).
| 1818 Hogg Brownie of Bodsb. II. 26 (Jam.) When selling my eild ewes and chasers. |