▪ I. blower1
(ˈbləʊə(r))
[OE. bláwere, f. bláwan to blow1: see -er1.]
1. gen. One who, or that which, blows. Usually followed by of (the object blown).
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. xxxvii. 268 Idel wæs se blawere. c 1320 Sir Tristr. i. xlix, The best blower of horn. 1545 Ludlow Churchw. Accts. (1869) 21 To the blower of the organs. 1775 Phil. Trans. LXV. 67 An expert blower of the German flute. 1872 Tennyson Last Tourn. 540 O hunter, and O blower of the horn. |
2. spec. A marine animal which ‘blows’ (see blow v.1 5); e.g. a whale.
| 1854 Bushnan in Circ. Sc. I. 140 The common cetaceans, popularly known as blowers. |
3. a. A mechanical contrivance for producing a current of air; e.g. a plate or sheet of metal fixed before a fire to increase the draught.
| 1795 Specif. Crook & German's Patent No. 2032 The blower was let down close to the top of the grate, so that no air could pass otherwise than through the grate. 1869 Eng. Mech. 24 Dec. 344/1 It can..be hung in front of the fire to act as a blower. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Blower, a fan or other apparatus for forcing air into a furnace or mine. 1885 Manch. Exam. 21 July 8/1 The sweepings [were]..put through the blower instead of the winnower. |
b. esp. An apparatus for creating an artificial current of air by pressure, used as a ventilator, dryer, etc., and to produce a blast of air in a furnace, etc. Also attrib., as blower-engine, blower-fan, blower-pipe.
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Blower,..a fan used on board American river steam-boats, to increase the current of air. 1875 Encycl. Brit. III. 552/2 The rotary blower, invented by Messrs. Root of Connersville, Ind., is one which has of late years found extensive use both in America and Europe. 1900 Everybody's Mag. III. 528 The waves, breaking over the blower-pipes, poured through in such quantities as to dampen the belts of the blower-engine. 1903 Daily Chron. 9 Dec. 6/3 The air is first filtered... Afterwards it passes through a blower-fan. 1958 Times 19 Aug. 11/7 The car..was fitted with a heater..and had a plastic knob for the blower. 1959 Listener 22 Jan. 159/2 Blowers which blast the snow into banks at the roadside. |
c. A blowing-machine: (a) for cleansing and ‘opening’ the fibres of cotton or wool; (b) for cleansing and separating rabbit fur.
| 1867 Chambers's Encycl. IX. 46/2 The cotton or wool..is..taken to the ‘blower’ or ‘opener’, and being put into a shaft, is there acted upon by a stream of air..which blows it forward, removes extraneous matters, [etc.]. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Blower, a machine for separating the hair from the fur fibres [in hat-making]. |
d. In an aeroplane engine, esp. a supercharger.
| 1920 Flight XII. 1004/2 A blower driven off the Renault engine was provided. 1922 Advisory Comm. Aeronaut. Techn. Rep. 1918–19 50 In connection with high altitude flying a large number of experiments have been carried out on different forms of blowers for aircraft engines. 1933 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXVII. 86 Further developments in scavenging and supercharging by auxiliary blowers. 1946 B. Sutton Jungle Pilot xiii. 66 At this height I found I could climb appreciably faster than the Tomahawks. This was due to my two-speed ‘blower’. |
e. A speaking-tube or telephone. colloq.
| 1922 E. Wallace Flying Fifty-Five xxx. 182 The club enjoyed a ‘blower service’. The ‘blower’ is difficult for the outsider to understand. 1926 ― More Educ. Evans v. 121, I heard it on the telephone... They got that price from the blower round at the Arts Club. 1945 Partridge Dict. R.A.F. Slang, Blower, from the Naval sense, ‘telephone’ or, rather, the speaking-tube connecting Bridge and Engine-Room. 1951 ‘N. Shute’ Round the Bend vii. 217 ‘Somebody must have got on the blower from Bahrein.’.. He meant the radio telephone that connects the aerodromes all down the eastern route. 1957 ‘J. Wyndham’ Midwich Cuckoos iii. 24 I'd of said the old girl was always listenin' when there was anyone on the blower. |
4. An escape of inflammable gas through a fissure in a coal-mine; the fissure itself; a similar current of air escaping through a fissure in a glacier.
| 1822 J. Imison Sc. & Art II. 59 It is disengaged from fissures in the strata..called by the miners blowers. 1860 Tyndall Glac. 87 While cutting away the surface further, I stopped the little ‘blower’. 1862 Smiles Engineers III. 111 The explosive gas was issuing through a blower in the roof of the mine with a loud hissing noise. 1866 Reader 21 July 671 ‘Blowers’ as they are called in the north of England..streams of inflammable gas issuing from the ground. |
5. fig. A boaster. dial. and in U.S. and colonies.
| 1863 Manhattan in Even. Standard 10 Dec., General Grant..is not one of the ‘blower’ generals. 1864 Spectator 22 Oct. 1202 1 Notorious among our bar and the public as a ‘blower’. |
6. Comb. with various adverbs (cf. blow v.1), as blower forth, blower in, blower up.
| 1550 J. Coke Debate Her. Eng. & Fr. (1877) 121 Blowers forth of fayned fables. 1601 Shakes. All's Well i. i. 132 Blesse our poore Virginity from vnderminers and blowers vp. 1635 Swan Spec. M. v. §2. 176 The winds..the blowers in of rain. |
▪ II. ˈblower2
[f. blow v.2 + -er1.]
A plant which blows or blooms. (Cf. bloomer.)
| 1796 C. Marshall Garden. xx. (1813) 402 Biennials and perennials, if late blowers, may yet be transplanted. |