Worker

Forms: see WORK v. [f. WORK v. + -ER¹. Cf. Du. werker, MHG. wercker (G. werker).]

  1.  One who makes, creates, produces or contrives. † a. Applied to God as maker or creator; sometimes absol. the Creator, (one’s) Maker. Obs.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 1501. Þe worcher of þis worlde.

1382.  Wyclif, Job xxxvi. 3. My werkere I shal proue riȝtwis.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xlvi. 53. He, of natur that wirker wes and king. Ibid., 60. He, the wirker, that put in hir sic grace.

1557.  N. T. (Genev.), Ep. *ij. God the Creatour, moste perfect and excellent worker of all thinges.

1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. ii. § 2. Only the workes and operations of God haue him both or their worker, and for the lawe whereby they are wrought.

a. 1602.  W. Perkins, Cases Consc. (1611), 4. He [God] is the author and worker thereof [i.e., of goodness] in all things created.

  b.  An author, producer, contriver or doer; † also with epithet, as evil worker = evil doer. arch.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Compl. Mars, 261. And therfore in the worcher was the vice.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., II. 266. Þus men mai have prophecie, and al þes habitis in þer soule, and be schrewid wirchirs. Ibid. (1382), Luke xiii. 27. Alle worcheris of wickidnesse.

1387–8.  T. Usk, Test. Love, III. ii. (Skeat), l. 63. Al your werkes be cleped seconde, and moven in vertue of the firste wercher.

c. 1400.  trans. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh., 88. Þe werkere of meruaylles ys oon god.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., IV. ii. 427. God is the cheef and principal and veri worcher of the principal effect.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, III. 344. Causer of wer, wyrkar of wykitnes.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XII. iii. 103. I sall the warrand, and the wirkar [orig. auctor] be To mak the baldly vndertak.

1526.  Tindale, Phil. iii. 2. Beware of dogges, beware of evyll workers.

1549.  Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Rom., iii. 5–8. They can not laye to goddes charge the synnes, wherof themself be wylful workers.

1598.  R. Bernard, trans. Terence, Andria, II. vi. If any thing happen otherwise then well, euen that same varlet is the worker of it.

1623.  Bingham, Xenophon, 107. The workers of the common safetie.

1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 286. They believe that the devil is the doer or worker of every thing that gives offence.

1843.  Tait’s Mag., X. 606/1. The worker of all this evil has vanished.

1867.  Morris, Jason, XVII. 441. She grew to be the sorceress, Worker of fearful things.

  c.  transf. of things.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, ii. 11. Dred is wirkere of vertus.

1604.  Jas. I., Counterbl. to Tobacco (Arb.), 106. The Tobacco … was the worker of that miracle.

1612.  Beaum. & Fl., Coxcomb, IV. i. You can say well: if you be mine, wench, you must doe well too, for words are but slow workers.

1842.  Dickens, Amer. Notes, iii. What a worker of hypocrisy this sight … would appear to be!

  † d.  ? A commercial agent. Obs.

1560.  Gresham, in Burgon, Life (1839), I. 323. The cheiffe sercher (whome ys all my worcker, and conveyer of all my velvets).

  2.  One who works or does work of any kind (sometimes with adj. denoting the quality of the work); esp. one who works in a certain medium, at a specified trade or object of manufacture, or in a certain position or status (often denoted by prefixed sb., etc., as boiler-worker, cloth-worker, iron-worker, metal-worker; co-worker, fellow-worker; brain-worker, hand-worker); in early use also, † a maker or manufacturer (of a specified thing).

1382.  Wyclif, Ecclus. xxxvii. 13, 14. With the werkere, of alle werk [Vulg. cum operario agrario, de omni opere]. Ibid. (1388), Acts xix. 24. A man, Demetrie bi name, a worcher in siluer.

c. 1400.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), V. vi. 98. Now haue we none instrumentes, ne here ben no werkers for to make them newe.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., VI. 62. Oon of thi workers falle [the tree] That kunyngest is of his felous alle.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, III. v. (1883), 119. The two laste that ben practisiens and werkers ben callyd phisicyens and cyrurgyens.

1487.  Rolls of Parlt., VI. 404/2. Th’ Offices of Maister and Werker of oure Money.

1530.  Tindale, Exod. xxxv. 35. Broderers and workers with nedle.

1566.  Act 8 Eliz., c. 11 § 4. Every Hatmaker that is nowe a maker or worker of Hates.

1611.  Cotgr., Ouvrier, a workeman; an Artificer, or handicraftsman … & generally, any worker.

1660.  F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 357. Lazy people, and no good workers.

1663.  Cowley, Ode upon Dr. Harvey, iii. He so exactly does the work survey, As if he hir’d the workers by the day.

1760.  Court & City Reg., 224. His Majesty’s Mint…. Master and Worker. Hon. Wm. Chetwynd, Esq.

1765.  Museum Rust., IV. 76. Mr. Naish, tin-plate-worker.

1767.  Phil. Trans., LVIII. 41. Another worker in ivory cut through that tusk which Lord Shelburne gave me.

1838.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., x. I spoke of you as an out-of-door worker.

1877.  Oxf. & Camb. Undergrad. Jrnl., 25 Jan., 173/2. Cowles not only has the knack of getting work out of his men, but is a very hard worker himself, though not a pretty oar.

1882.  Besant, All Sorts, xxxv. (1898), 242. There are a great many workers—ladies, priests, clergymen—among them, trying to remove some of the suffering.

1887.  Ruskin, Præterita, II. 207. The full happiness of that time to me cannot be explained except to consistently hard workers.

  b.  In emphatic use, esp. as opposed to idler, or the like.

1628.  C. Levett, Voy. N. Eng., viii. in Collect. Mass. Hist. Soc., Ser. III. VIII. 190. Except for every three loiterers, he have one worker.

1852.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxviii. A dreamy, neutral spectator … when he should have been a worker.

1866.  Ruskin, Crown Wild Olive, i. 8. The distinction between workers and idlers, as between knaves and honest men. Ibid. (1871), Fors Clav., ix. 4, note. Here and there we have a real worker among soldiers, or no soldiering would long be possible.

1889.  G. B. Shaw, in Fabian Ess., Socialism, 6. The excess of fertility in Adam’s land is thenceforth recognized as rent and paid, as it is to-day, regularly by a worker to a drone.

  c.  One who is employed for a wage, esp. in manual or industrial work; now often in the language of social economics, a ‘producer of wealth,’ as opposed to capitalist.

1848.  C. Kingsley, Lett. (1877), I. 157. Workers of England, be wise, and then you must be free, for you will be fit to be free.

1857.  Househ. Words, 27 June, 603/1. The first great body of workers, namely the clerks [i.e., railway clerks].

1862.  Smiles, Engineers, III. 14. They belonged to the ancient and honourable family of Workers—that extensive family which constitutes the backbone of our country’s greatness, the common working people of England.

1867.  L. Levi, Wages Working Classes, 6. Some have limited the meaning to such as are in receipt of weekly wages, and some would limit the term ‘workers’ to such as are employed in the production of wealth. It might seem also a condition of such appellation that the person should stand in the capacity of servant or worker for others, and not as worker on his own account. On the other hand, we must remember that in many occupations the workers are paid by the month or quarter.

1885.  E. B. Bax, Relig. Socialism (1886), 125. This, then, is the empire which the blood and sinew of you, workers, are squandered to maintain and extend.

1891.  Morris, Poems by Way, 109.

1903.  (title) The Workers’ Educational Association.

  d.  Of animals: † (a) A draught animal. Obs.

1617.  Toke (Kent) Estate Acc. (MS.), fol. 9. One payer workers at £15.

  (b)  A horse, dog, etc. that works (well).

1844.  [J. W. Carleton], Hyde Marston, I. 74. It’s not fair to keep the double thong always going with a free worker.

1874.  Kennel Club Stud Bk., 101. Bell and Lilly … the latter being a small, mean-looking white bitch, but a very good worker.

1908.  Animal Managem., 283. Geldings … were proved to be very good workers in Somaliland.

  (c)  The neuter or undeveloped female of certain social hymenopterous and other insects, as ants and bees, which supplies food and performs other services for the community.

1747.  W. Gould, Engl. Ants, 73. As soon as the Queen has deposited a Parcel of Eggs, the Workers take them under their Protection.

1816.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xvii. (1817), II. 32. The workers or larvæ, answering to the hymenopterous neuters, are the most numerous and at the same time most active part of the community.

1855.  Poultry Chron., III. 351. Fertile workers lay none but male eggs.

  e.  U.S. Politics. One of a class of political agents or partizans subordinate to a ‘boss.’

1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. lxiii. 451. The large and active class called, technically, ‘workers,’ or more affectionately, ‘the Boys.’

  3.  Applied to apparatus or pieces of machinery.

  † a.  A vessel in which wine has ‘worked.’ Obs. b. One of the small card-covered cylinders or ‘urchins’ in a carding-machine. c. A leather-worker’s two-handled knife (Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., 1884). d. In pillow lace-making, pl. the bobbins that are worked across a pattern. e. = WASHER sb.¹ 5 b. f. With prefixed sb., applied to an apparatus for ‘working’ the material denoted by the sb., as butter-worker.

1594.  Plat, Jewell-ho., III. 70. Let your vessel bee such as hath alreadie conteined some muste or other liquor that hath wrought therin, (for be that knoweth not the vse of a worker is but a slender artist).

1835.  Ure, Philos. Manuf., 167. Each pair of cylinders consists of a worker and a cleaner somewhat less in size than its fellow, and turning in the reverse direction of the drum. Ibid. (1853), Dict. Arts, I. 766. The points of this roller (called a ‘worker’) are inclined in a direction opposed to the movement of the swift.

1853.  Beils’ Technol. Wbch., Worker, Washer in paper manufacture.

1878.  Technol. Dict., Worker, Stripper of the scribbling-machine.

1885.  J. J. Manley, Brit. Almanac Comp., 18. The butter-milk and water are carefully pressed out in one of Bradford’s butter workers.

  4.  With adverbs, as worker-up (see WORK v. 39).

1656.  Second Ed. New Almanack, 10. He be no very good worker up.

1698.  Acts Massachusetts (1724), 116. Tanners, Curriers, and Dressers, or Workers up of Leather.

1848.  Sinks of Lond., 3. All the old topics,… which have afforded so much employment to … the worker-up of novels.

  5.  attrib., as (sense 2 d (c)) worker ant, bee, cell, grub; worker bobbin = 3 d; worker card = 3 b.

1816.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xix. (1817), II. 138. The instinct and industry of the worker-bees. Ibid., 161. The instinct of the queen invariably directs her to deposit worker eggs in worker cells. Ibid., xxiv. 394. When all the worker-brood was removed from a hive, and only male brood left.

1855.  Poultry Chron., III. 561. It is not invariably found that the bees will at once convert a worker grub into a queen.

1881.  Cowan, Bee-keeper’s Guide Bk., vii. 20. If we examine a hive, we shall find that worker-comb is ⁷/₈hs of an inch … thick.

1882.  Athenæum, 1 July, 18/3. As in bees and wasps, worker ants occasionally produce fertile eggs.

1894.  C. Vickerman, Woollen Spinning, 159. We call one of each of the pairs of top rollers a ‘worker’ card, in distinction from the adjoining one, which is a stripper.