[f. as prec. + -ER1.] One who builds; the erecter of a building. Also fig.; see senses of BUILD v.
As the name of a trade, builder now denotes the master artisan, who receives his instructions from the architect, and employs the masons, carpenters, etc., by whom the manual work is performed.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., clviii. Sel. Wks. II. 66. Þe stoon þat bilderis reproveden.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xlix. 17. Thi bilderes camen.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 351. The bylder eke to knowe is necessarie What gravel and what lyme is profitable.
1571. Ascham, Scholem., Pref. (Arb.), 21. As it chanceth to busie builders … the worke rose dailie higher and wider.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 8. The builder oake, sole king of forrests all.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 466. The builders … of Babel on the Plain Of Sennaar.
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 274. He was the … builder-up of his own greatness.
1827. Carlyle, in For. Rev. & Cont. Misc., II. 121. Not a destroyer, but a builder up.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., 162. The builders of Cathedrals.
