licker
(ˈlɪkə(r))
[f. lick v. + -er1.]
a. One who or something which licks; spec. in sense 6 of the verb. Also licker-up; in silver-plating = lick-up (see lick v. 8).
| 1440 Promp. Parv. 305/1 Lykkare, or he þat lykkythe, lecator. 1552 Huloet, Licker, lictor. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 999 Plated manufacture..The under face of the stamp⁓hammer has a plate of iron called the licker-up fitted into it. 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxxxviii. III Being acquiescent lickers-up of ministerial dishonour. 1894 A. Morrison Martin Hewitt ii. 66 ‘There's no footprint here nor outside.’.. ‘That's a licker,’ he said. 1895 J. T. Clegg Works I. 375 Iv that's ony credit to Walsden it's a licker to me! 1898 Daily News 4 Apr. 8/3 The licker of red-hot irons was briskly following his profession. 1902 Eng. Dial. Dict. III. 587/1 Fatther, this sum is a licker; will yo' du it for mha? 1907 Daily Chron. 31 July 4/7 The licking his Majesty once suffered..[and] the half-crown the late Queen gave the licker for his pluck. 1908 A. S. M. Hutchinson Once aboard Lugger vi. viii. 456 Into a chair Bill collapsed... He gasped ‘George, this is a licker, a fair licker.’ |
b. licker-in, the cylinder in a carding-machine which receives the cotton, wool, etc., from the feed-rollers and passes it on to the main cylinder. Also attrib.
| 1850 Rep. Comm. Patents 1849 (U.S.) 198, I do not claim a licker-in, nor the first main cylinder as such. 1884 [see burring vbl. n.1]. 1884 W. S. B. Maclaren Spinning 84 To assist the process..the licker-in rollers are sometimes made hollow, and steam is allowed to fill them. 1888 [see breast n. 9 h]. 1892 [see garnett n.]. 1946 A. J. Hall Stand. Handbk. Textiles iii. 101 The cotton in lap form from the scutching machine is fed on to one of the small rollers (termed the licker-in). |