1. One whose trade it is to grind knives and cutting-tools, esp. in the process of making these; also, an itinerant grinder or sharpener of knives and scissors.
1611. Florio, Arruotatore, a sheare or knife grinder.
1797. Canning, Knife-Grinder, iii. Tell me, Knife-grinder, how you came to grind knives?
1813. Examiner, 16 May, 317/2. Tricks that are called nervous,—such as … playing the knife-grinder with your leg.
1878. W. T. Harris, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 265. The case of the Sheffield knife-grinders.
2. A grind-stone, emery-wheel, or other appliance for grinding steel cutting tools.
1875. in Knight, Dict. Mech.
3. a. A name for a species of cicada. b. The Nightjar or Goatsucker (Cent. Dict.); see GRINDER 7.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon (1860), I. 267. The cicada … makes the forest re-echo with a long sustained noise so curiously resembling that of a cutler’s wheel that … it has acquired the highly appropriate name of the knife-grinder.
