[f. CRAM v. + -ER1.]
1. One who crams or fattens poultry, etc. b. An apparatus used in cramming poultry.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 119. The best fattening of all Fowl, is, First, to feed them with good Meat … Secondly, To give it them not continually, as Crammers do.
1887. N. Y. Weekly Witness, April 13. The Sussex cramming machine…. At the end of the crammer … is funnel-shaped opening.
2. colloq. One who ‘crams’ pupils for an examination, etc.; more rarely, a student who ‘crams’ a subject. (Cf. CRAM v. 6.)
1813. Mar. Edgeworth, Patron., I. iii. 49. Put him into the hands of a clever grinder or crammer, and they would soon cram the necessary portion of Latin and Greek into him.
1888. F. Harrison, in 19th Cent., Nov., 645. Thereupon grew up another class of specialists—the Crammers. Their business is, not to teach, nor to test teaching; but to enable students to pass the tests.
3. slang. A lie. (Cf. CRAM v. 5, sb. 3.)
1862. Sala, Seven Sons, I. xi. 287. Every other word he says is a crammer.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, 105. That’s why she made me tell all those crammers.
Crammer, var. CRAMER, Sc., pedlar, etc.
