[f. SMOOTH v.]
† 1. One who uses smooth or flattering language; a flatterer. Obs.
1611. Cotgr., Blandisseur, a blandisher,… smoother, flattering sycophant, or claw-backe.
[a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. iii. 38. My Claw backs, my Smoothers, my Parasites.]
2. One who or that which smooths in some respect; a refiner, mollifier, pacifier, etc. Also with down.
Freq. in recent newspaper use as in quot. 1902.
1611. Cotgr., Polisseur, a polisher…; sleeker, smoother.
1630. Lennard, trans. Charron’s Wisd. (1670), 473. [Honesty] preserveth the Magistrate free from … bribes, which is the plague, and smoother of truth.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., Wks. 1755, V. II. 71. A seasonable report of some invasion...; which is a great smoother of rubs in publick proceedings.
1767. Percy, Anc. Eng. Minstrels, in Reliq. (ed. 2), I. p. xx. A word which denotes ‘Smoothers and Polishers of language.’
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xix. 265. A sunset is a wonderful smoother-down of these artificial features in a landscape.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 2 July, 2/2. Last March Mr. Lehmann … was very angry with the ‘smoothers,’ as he was pleased to call the peacemakers in the Liberal Party.
b. A worker employed in smoothing linen; a calenderer or ironer.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. i. (1869), I. 7. The bleachers and smoothers of the linen.
1898. Daily News, 12 July, 6/6. The shot entering the calf of the leg of a girl named Maggie Atkinson, a smoother in Castlereagh Laundry.
3. An implement, tool or machine for smoothing (see quots.).
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 352/1. The third … is termed a Smoother, with which all their Leather is slickened, as they call it.
1738. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Bookbinding, The book, being put in the press,… is scraped with a knife called a scraper; and after that with another called a smoother.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Smoother. A smoothing iron.
1885. Trans. Lanc. & Chesh. Antiq. Soc., III. 256. These [glass] mullers or smoothers were in use for centuries.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 154. They [sc. pieces of wood] then pass on to the ‘smoother,’ a fixed knife, against which they are driven.
Smoother, obs. form of SMOTHER sb. and v.
† Smoothery: see SMETH. Obs.
