shoemaker
(ˈʃuːmeɪkə(r))
Forms: see shoe n. and maker; also 6 north. shounemaker (from the pl.).
1. One whose trade it is to make shoes.
| 1381 Rolls of Parlt. III. 112/2 Johannes Stotesbury, Childe⁓shomakere. c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 164 A philosophur..þat boght a payr of shone on a tyme of a sho-maker. 1519 Presentm. Juries in Surtees Misc. (1890) 32 That the shounemaker sewe well thayre shown. 1621 in Kempe Losely MSS. (1836) 430 To y⊇ shoo maker for boots and shooes..4li. 3s. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. 5 Our shoemaker..employs three journeymen. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. vii, His expression and stoop are like those of a shoemaker. |
b. in Latin proverb (
cf. last n.1 2 c.).
| 1587 Golding De Mornay (1592) 155 The Shoomaker ought not to presume aboue the Pantople. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 173 Carrying the shoe-maker beyond his last, and encroaching upon the province of divines. |
2. a. In the names of various fishes.
| [1688 Holme Armoury ii. 377/2 Table, Shoomaker fish 15 16. Ibid. ii. xv. 350 The Hollanders call it [the Tench] a Schoemaker.] 1836 J. Richardson Fauna Bor.-Amer. iii. 120 Cyprinus (Catastomus) nigricans. (Le Sueur.).. This species is..an inhabitant of Lake Erie, where it is known to the fishermen by the names of ‘Shoemaker’, and ‘Black Sucker’. 1884 Goode Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 326 The Threadfish, Blepharis crinitus.., also known as the ‘Shoemaker-fish’. Ibid. 332 The Runner, Elagatis pinnulatus.., known..at Pensacola as..‘Shoemaker’, is..abundant on the..coasts of Florida. 1891 Century Dict. s.v. Coral, Coral shoemaker, a fish of the family Teuthididæ and genus Teuthis or Acanthurus, living in the coral reefs of the Seychelles. 1904 Eng. Dial. Dict., Shoemaker, the lesser weever, Trachinus vipera; also in comb. Master shoemaker. |
b. A name for the bird
Skua antarcticus.
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Egmont, or Port Egmont Fowls, the large Antarctic gulls with dark-brown plumage, called shoemakers. |
3. Comb. † shoemaker-loo U.S., some game at cards.
| 1813 R. B. Thomas Farmer's Alm. (Boston, U.S.) Dec. in Kittredge Old Farmer & Almanack (1904) 95 Tom Teazer, well known at the grog shops for a dabster at shoe⁓maker loo. |
b. Combinations of possessive, as
shoemaker's craft, but chiefly in the names of tools and appliances, as
shoemaker's awl,
shoemaker's black (
black n. 1 b),
shoemaker end (
end n. 6 c),
shoemaker's hammer,
shoemaker's knife,
shoemaker's nippers,
shoemaker's paste,
shoemaker's rasp,
shoemaker's thread,
shoemaker's wax; also
shoemaker's bark-tree (see
quot.);
shoemaker's holiday,
† (
a) see
quot. 1607; also applied to Monday (see Dekker
Shoemaker's Holiday iii. i); (
b) used jocularly (after the title of Dekker's play,
a 1600) for a day's holiday or ‘outing’ in the country;
shoemaker's spasm, a synonym given to tetany because of the liability of shoemakers to be affected by it;
† shoe-maker's stocks slang, shoes which pinch the feet.
| 1647 Hexham i, A *shoe-makers aule. |
| 1874 Treas. Bot. Suppl., *Shoemaker's bark-tree, a Montserrat name for Byrsonima spicata. |
| 1563 T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 91 The seedes..being mixed with *shomakers blacke, doth take away warts. |
| 1530 Palsgr. 267/1 *Shoomakers crafte, cordovanerie. 1540 Maldon (Essex) Liber B. 158 Idem Andreas in arte sive occupacione de shomakerscrafte bene et fideliter serviret dictum Cornelium. 1598, etc. *Shoemaker's end [see end n. 6 c]. |
| 1895 P. N. Hasluck Boot Making 18 A *shoemaker's hammer, knife, nippers, glazing iron, and rasp. |
| Ibid. 27 *Shoemaker's Rasp. |
| 1607 Christmas Prince iii. (1816) 47 Tuesday [loq.]..Bouzer I am not, but mild, sober Tuesday..if I light not on St. Hewsday. Footnote. The *Shoemakers holy-day. 1768 Goldsm. in European Mag. (1793) Sept. 172/1 And now my dear boy, if you are not better engaged, I should be glad to enjoy a Shoe-maker's holiday with you. 1822 Scott Let. 23 June in Lockhart (1837) V. 189 Castle Street is bad enough, even with the privilege of a hop-step-and-jump to Abbotsford, by way of shoemakers' holiday. |
| 1647 Hexham i, A *shoe-makers knife. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes vii, [He] would have gladly stabbed me with his shoemaker's knife. |
| 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 349/2 These..*Shoo⁓makers Nippers..having a sharp point in the end of one [shank]; and a slit in the other, to strain up a Tack. |
| 1866 Athenæum Feb. 243/3 The paste to be used for all prints..should be *shoemakers' paste. |
| 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. (1910) VIII. 578 Of 399 cases [of Tetany]..174 occurred in shoemakers (‘*shoemaker's spasm’). |
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Shoemakers-stocks, pincht with strait Shoes. |
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 420 Fasten on each side of the hole, two ends of *Shoomakers thread. |
| 1603 Dekker Wonderf. Yr. Wks. (Grosart) I. 132 *Shooemakers waxe being laide to a byle. 1885 J. B. Leno Boot & Shoemaking 221 Shoemakers' Wax..is composed generally of..pitch and resin, with 10 per cent. of tallow. |
Hence
ˈshoemakeress, a female shoemaker.
ˈshoemakerish a., resembling that of a shoemaker.
| 1860 All Year Round Sept. 523/2 They all bought their shoes of a woman who was called Mother Rousselle... The shoemakeress [etc.]. 1866 Howells Venetian Life xiv. 204 With bead-black eyes and of a shoemakerish presence. |