sweater
(ˈswɛtə(r))
[f. as prec. + -er1.]
1. a. lit. One who sweats or perspires; spec. one who takes a ‘sweating bath’.
| 1562 W. Bullein Bulwark, Bk. Sick Men (1579) 21 b, Take heede to sutch sweaters, and idle eaters. 1579 Twyne Phisicke agst. Fort. i. xviii. 23 Compare with these, those sweaters, and belchers. 1611 Cotgr., Racletorets, such as rub sweaters in hot bathes. |
b. with
out: One who gives forth or exudes something in the manner of sweat; in
quot. fig.| 1612 Chapman Rev. Bussy d'Ambois i. i. 350 Every innovating Puritan, And ignorant sweater-out of zealous envy. |
† c. Name for a variety of pear.
Obs.| 1629 Parkinson Parad. (1904) 593 The Sweater is some⁓what like the Windsor [pear] for colour and bignesse. |
2. a. One who works hard, a toiler;
spec. a tailor who worked for an employer overtime at home (now disused: see
sweat v. 5 c). Also
transf. (see
quot. 1887).
| a 1529 Skelton El. Rummyng 105 To trauellars, to tynkers, To sweters, to suynkers, And all good ale drynkers. 1628 tr. Mathieu's Powerfull Favorite 145 Of the blood of sweaters, and of the teares of the people. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 304/1 Amongst the ‘sweaters’ of the tailoring trade Sunday labour..is almost universal. 1887 G. D. Atkin House Scraps 13 Sweater,..a broker who works for such small commissions as to prevent other brokers getting the business, whilst hardly being profitable to himself. 1889 in Pall Mall G. 7 May 1/2 Originally the tailoring was carried on in work⁓rooms belonging to the tailors' shops, and the name of ‘sweater’ was first given as a term of reproach to the tailor who worked at home. 1895 Meredith Amazing Marriage ix, The dirty sweaters are nearer the angels for cleanliness than my Lord and Lady Sybarite out of a bath, in chemical scents. |
b. A servant.
Winchester College slang.
| 1900 J. S. Farmer Public School Word-Bk. 198 Sweater..(Winchester), a servant. 1973 Country Life 19 July 147/1 This is a souvenir plaque..showing the famous painting of the ‘Trusty Servant’ at Winchester College..or ‘Sweater’ as he is sometimes called. |
3. A medicine that induces sweat; a sudorific, diaphoretic.
| 1684 W. Russell Phys. Treatise 13 Seeing it is evident, that Vomiting and Purging Medicines never become Sweaters or Binders. 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports ii. vii. ii. §2. 451/2 This is no doubt a strong sweater, but it upsets the stomach. |
4. One of a set of street ruffians in the 18th century, who threatened or attacked people so as to make them sweat.
Obs. exc. Hist.| 1712 Steele Spect. No. 332 ¶2 These Sweaters..seem to have at present but a rude Kind of Discipline amongst them. 1878 Lecky Eng. in 18th Cent. I. iii. 482 The ‘sweaters’ who formed a circle round their prisoner and pricked him with their swords till he sank exhausted to the ground. |
5. One who exacts hard work at very low wages; an employer or middleman who overworks and underpays those working under him: see
sweat v. 6 b, and
cf. 2 above.
| 1846 Manch. Guardian 21 Mar. 7/4 A sort of middlemen, called ‘sweaters’, who get it [sc. tailoring work] by men and women at starvation prices. 1850 Kingsley Alton Locke x, Were not the army clothes, the post-office clothes, the policemen's clothes, furnished by contractors and sweaters, who hired the work at low prices, and let it out again to journeymen at still lower ones? 1869–70 Latham Dict., Sweater..Middlemen between slopsellers and working tailors. Colloquial. 1879 Sims Social Kaleidoscope Ser. i. ix. 58 The half-starved women and men, who put the things together in top garrets in back slums, or are nigger-driven by a ‘sweater’ in an East-end workroom. 1890 Earl of Dunraven Draft Rep. Sweating Syst. §7 The sweater may employ only two or three persons, or he may have two or three score in his service; but the great bulk of the sweated class work for small masters and in rooms or shops where from two or three to a dozen or twenty are employed. |
6. One who ‘sweats’ gold coins: see
sweat v. 15.
| 1845 Currency Theory Reviewed 69 It being obvious that the coinage, in the very nature of things, must be for ever, unit by unit, falling under depreciation by the mere action of ordinary and unavoidable abrasion—(to say nothing of the inducement which every restoration of the coinage holds out to the whole legion of ‘pluggers’ and ‘sweaters’). 1868 E. Seyd Bullion (1880) 550 To the sweater it really can make no difference whether the mint takes his lightened sovereigns. 1875 Jevons Money x. 115 No one now actually refuses any gold money in retail business; so that the sweater..has all the opportunities he can desire. |
7. † a. pl. Clothes in which a horse or a man in training is exercised, to produce profuse sweating.
| 1828 Sporting Mag. XXIII. 104 A craving, strong horse, going along in his sweat, loaded with sweaters. 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports ii. v. 420/1 Let him put on his sweaters, including a flannel pair of drawers, two pair of trowsers, a flannel jersey [etc.]. |
b. A woollen vest or jersey worn in rowing or other athletic exercise,
orig. (
cf. a) in order to reduce one's weight; now commonly put on also before or after exercise to prevent taking cold. Hence a similar garment for general informal wear; a jumper or pullover.
| 1882 Floyer Unexpl. Baluchistan 74 Barja is resplendent in my rowing ‘sweater’, covered by a scarlet blanket, worn as a coat. 1886 Referee 12 Dec. (Cassell's) Want of food..and exercise in sweaters. 1890 R. C. Lehmann Harry Fludyer 97 As for Pilling [the cox], the little ruffian actually weighs over 8 stone; but we're going to make him run a mile every day, with four sweaters, and three pairs of flannel trousers on. 1895 Century Mag. May 25/2 His brawny, muscular chest, which was covered only by a dark, close-fitting ‘sweater’, was that of an athlete. 1912 J. Sandilands Western Canad. Dict. & Phrase-Bk., Sweater, a woollen jacket, much worn in Canada during the winter both indoors and outdoors, and sometimes a somewhat gaudy article of wear. 1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Oct. 640/1 A tall, bespectacled young man in turtle-necked sweater. 1981 G. Swift Shuttlecock i. 13 Martin has a red polo⁓neck sweater and Peter a brown one and they both wear identical child's blue jeans. |
8. An occupation, etc. that makes one sweat or exert oneself.
colloq.| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 126/2 The business is a sweater, sir; it's heavy work. 1856 Mrs. Stowe Dred xlii, You ought to read Fletcher's book; that book, sir, is a sweater, I can tell you. I sweat over it, I know. |
9. attrib. and
Comb., as (sense 7 b)
sweater blouse,
sweater coat,
sweater dress,
sweater-suit;
sweater girl U.S., a girl,
esp. a model or actress, who wears tight-fitting sweaters;
orig. a name applied to the American actress Lana Turner (b. 1921) who wore such a sweater in the film
They won't Forget (1937), and in subsequent publicity photographs;
sweater-shirt, (
a)
U.S., a knitted garment that may be worn as a sweater or a shirt; (
b)
= sweat-shirt s.v. sweat n. 11.
| 1925 Vogue Early Mar. 60 (caption) This straight-line *sweater blouse from Molyneux..is fashioned of fine dark-blue tricot covered with an all-over woven pattern in gold thread. 1954 New Yorker 27 Nov. 141/1 A wool jersey sweaterblouse, lavender or white, has cap sleeves and a scoop neck ornamented with gold thread and tiny pink felt buds. |
| 1911 *Sweater coat [see Lovat]. 1963 Vogue Dec. 190 Sweater-coat hand-knitted in Italy. |
| 1965 Harper's Bazaar May 6 (Advt.), An enchanting cashmere *sweater-dress. |
| 1940 Movie Mirror June 9/1 (caption) Sweet and sophisticated sixteen: Lana Turner, at the time her face hit a thousand papers as the ‘*Sweater Girl’. 1941 Life 14 Apr. 33/2 Mr. Breen's letter left movie⁓makers wondering..what to do with their up-and-coming sweater girls. 1956 S. Ertz Charmed Circle 71 Among all the ‘sweater girls’ she looked, in her unrevealing black dress, as if she had strayed in by mistake. 1971 D. MacKenzie Sleep is for Rich iii. 66 Crying Eddie was getting plenty of attention from the sweater girls. |
| 1964 New Yorker 12 Oct. 15 *Sweater-shirt of pink cashmere. 1977 Private Eye 4 Mar. 20/2 (Advt.), American styled printed sweatershirts and T-shirts. |
| 1929 M. Lief Hangover 232 ‘You're looking fine,’ said Whippet, admiring her..slim figure in a neat-fitting *sweater-suit. 1964 Glamour Sept. 160 Town sweater-suits [are] booted for the summer. |
Hence
ˈsweatered a., wearing a sweater; clothed in a sweater.
| 1901 S. E. White Claim Jumpers i. 11 Two sweatered and white-ducked individuals. 1936 R. Chandler in Trouble is my Business (1954) 205 The sweatered man snatched the gun up. 1971 C. McCullers Mortgaged Heart (1977) 74 His blue sweatered shoulders were shaking. |
______________________________
▸
sweater vest n. N. Amer. a sleeveless knitted garment worn over a shirt in the manner of a waistcoat or vest;
cf. vest n. 3b.
| 1903 Mansfield (Ohio) News 24 Jan. 3/1 Pat had just sent away and purchased a fine *sweater vest. 1953 Chicago Daily Tribune 23 Sept. ii. 7/1 Knitted sweater vests in a variety of knitted patterns... They're perfect mates to sport coats and provide warmth for active men. 2004 Maclean's (Electronic ed.) 27 Sept. 45 Donning tight pants and a sweater vest. |