[f. prec. + -ER1.]
1. One who kneels, esp. in reverence; spec. in 16–17th c., one who received the Lord’s Supper kneeling.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 3. Whos knelere, I, am unworþi to unbinde þe lace of his shoon.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 264. Hercules, whom the greekes do call Engonasin, as it were the kneeler, bicause of his gesture.
1665. Livingstone, Charac., in Sel. Biog. (1845), I. 344. They would not communicat with Kneelers.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, II. 332. Down the ready kneeler dropped between me and the door.
1864. J. Walker, in Faithful Ministry, iv. 84. He then retired … waving his hand and blessing the kneelers.
2. Ch. Hist. a. One belonging to the third class of penitents in the early Eastern church, so called because they knelt between the ambo and the church-door during the whole of divine service. b. In the Apostolic Constitutions, one of the second class of catechumens, who received the bishop’s blessing on bended knee.
1719. T. Lewis, Consecr. Churches, 95. In this Part of the Church … stood the Class of the Penitents, who were call’d Kneelers.
a. 1773. Alban Butler, Moveable Feasts (1852), I. 279. The third rank of penitents was that of the kneelers or prostrators.
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., I. 202. The Catechumens proper, both the Audientes … and Genuflectentes (kneelers).
† 3. Arch. a. The return of the dripstone at the spring of an arch: cf. KNEE sb. 10. b. Each of the terms or steps of the ‘fractable’ of a gable; a crow-step or corbie-step. Obs.
1617. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 204. Doorsteedes with … heddes and cornishes and kneelers over ye same. Ibid., 205. Cornises and kneelers over everie windowe.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 472. A kneeler,… stones that stand upright, that makes a Square outward aboue, and inward below.
4. A board, stool or hassock on which to kneel.
1848. J. H. Newman, Loss & Gain, III. x. 381. At the lower end of the church were about three ranges of movable benches, with backs and kneelers.
1894. Daily News, 22 May, 7/1. There are also fauld-stools and kneelers.
5. Mining. (See quot.)
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining Terms, Kneeler, a quadrant by which the direction of pump rods is reversed.
