doffer

English

Etymology

doff +‎ -er

Noun

doffer (plural doffers)

A hand doffer used for doffing wool from a small carding device

1. (textile manufacturing) In a carding machine, a device such as a revolving cylinder or a vibrating bar with teeth, that doffs, that is to say strips off, the carded cotton or other fiber from the cards; or a hand tool for the same function in smaller machines or in manual carding.
2. A worker who replaces full bobbins by empty ones on the throstle or ring frames. The job was often done by children.
   • 1942 Eric Knight The Flying Yorkshireman

     For Sam was young then, and worked as a collier lad. It was long before he went into the mill and invented his famous self-doffing spindle.

Derived terms

• doffer shaft
• ring doffer

Related terms

• doffing comb

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “doffer”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• fforde, offer'd, offred

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔ.fər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: dof‧fer
• Rhymes: -ɔfər

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch duvers, duve (“dove, pigeon”).

Noun

doffer m (plural doffers, diminutive doffertje n, feminine duif or duivin)

1. male dove, a cock pigeon

   Synonyms: duiver, mannetjesduif

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Adjective

doffer

1. comparative degree of dof