▪ I. ˈslatter, n.
Also 4–5 sclatter, 5–6 sklatter, 6 sklattar.
[f. slat n.1 or v.1]
1. = slater1 1. Now dial.
| 1379 in Yorks. Archæol. Jrnl. V. 43 Henricus Sclatter & vxor, Sclatter, vj{supd}. c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 1793 Sklatteres, Masons, and Carpenter, And other Men of alle mister. 1444 Act 23 Hen. VI, c. 12, Les gages ascun..maistre Tiler ou Sclatter. 1539 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 160 William Bybe, sklatter. Waltar Cuddesdon, sklattar. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. vi. v. (1651) 575 As slatters sort their slattes, do they degrees and families. 1669 Phil. Trans. IV. 1009 The Sects (the hewing instrument of the Slatters). 1881 Leic. Gloss., Slatter, one who ‘slats’ generally, but more particularly a slater. |
† 2. A wood-louse. = slater1 2.
| 1739 Dr. Clarke in Graham Soc. Life Scotl. in 18th c. (1899) I. i. 50 Give him twice a day the juice of twenty slatters squeezed through a muslin bag. |
▪ II. † ˈslatter, v.1
In 5 slat(e)re.
[Cf. slat v.3]
1. trans. To slash or slit (clothes).
| a 1400 Hymns Virgin (1867) 62 Slatre þi clothis boþe schorte & side. 1480 Caxton Cron. Eng. ccxxvi. 233 Short clothes and streyte..on euery syde slatered [Brut 297 desslatered] and botened with sleues and tapytes of surcotes. |
2. To split, to shiver.
| c 1400 Turnament Tottenham 159 Ther were flayles al to slatred [v.r. flatred],..Bollys and dysches al to schatred. |
▪ III. slatter, v.2
(ˈslætə(r))
[Imitative: cf. slat v.2 4.]
intr. To clatter. Also ˈslattering vbl. n.
| 1661 K. W. Conf. Charac. (1860) 20 The slattering of a cadent brickbat. 1830 Blackw. Mag. XXVII. 588 At first a low muttering is heard,..then a sort of sliding slattering noise, and finally a reverberating thundering crash. 1870 Daily News 1 Oct., The Prince might ride by with his escort slattering over the paved street. |