▪ I. dyer
(ˈdaɪə(r))
Also 4 dighere, dyhȝere, 6–7 dyar, dier, -ar.
[f. dye v.: OE. type *déaᵹere.]
1. One whose occupation is to dye cloth and other materials.
| 1369 in Riley Lond. Mem. (1868) 337 Victor de Male, dighere. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 362 A Webbe, a Dyere, and a Tapicer. a 1400 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 359 Þe mayster dyhȝeres of peyntours in þe citee. 1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples 47 b, With this Diars colour their Wolle withall. a 1610 Healey Theophrastus (1636) To Rdr., A great water-pot like a Diers fat. 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 94 A piece of black and white stuff just sent from the dyer. 1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 368 Indigo employed by the dyers or calico-printers. |
b. A variety of grape.
| 1865 Daily Tel. 20 July, Grapes are already in the market, and the especial one known as the ‘dyer’, from being used to colour various wines, is beginning to blush. |
2. Combinations of dyer's: a. dyer's bath = dye-bath; † dyer's grain, the coccus insect, kermes; dyer's spirit, tin tetrachloride, employed as a mordant. b. In the names of plants used for dyeing: dyer's alkanet, bugloss, Anchusa tinctoria (Ure's Dict. Arts 1875); dyer's broom, whin, Genista tinctoria, also called dyer's green-weed, dyer's weed, and woadwaxen; dyer's grape, Phytolacca decandra (Miller Plant-n. 1884); dyer's-moss, archil; dyer's oak, Quercus infectoria, the galls of which yield a dye; dyer's rocket, Reseda Luteola, also called dyer's yellow-weed; dyer's woad, Isatis tinctoria (see woad).
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., The tree whereon diers grayne groweth, Coccus infectorius. 1597 Gerarde Herbal iii. xviii. (1633) 1317 The Greenweeds..do grow to dye clothes with. It is called..in English Diers Greenweed. 1854 S. Thomson Wild Fl. iii. (ed. 4) 236 The..yellow-flowered Genista tinctoria, or dyer's-green weed, or woad-waxen. 1860 Oliver Less. Bot. (1886) 124 Dyer's Woad (Isatis tinctoria). 1861 Miss Pratt Flower Pl. I. 157 Reseda Luteola, Dyer's Rocket. Ibid. II. 81 Genista tinctoria, Woad-waxen, Dyer's-whin, Dyer's weed, or Greenweed. |
▪ II. dyer
obs. form of dier, one who dies.