[f. STAB v. + -ER1.]
1. One who stabs.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, in Lyly’s Wks., 1902, III. 399. One hath been an old stabber at passage.
1682. Otway, Venice Preserved, III. ii. Mix with hired Slaves, Bravoes, and Common stabbers?
1752. Young, Brothers, III. i. Blood-thirsty stabbers.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, I. xxii. Despite his craft, he heard with awe This ruffian stabber fix the law.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., i. Whoever called me stabber to you, lies.
b. transf.
1834. Mar. Edgeworth, Helen, II. ix. (1848), 240. I set at defiance all the searchers and stabbers and custom-house officers.
c. fig.
1603. Dekker, Wonderfull Yeare, D 3 b. How sudden a stabber this ruffianly swaggerer, Death, is.
1737. Gentl. Mag., VII. 205/1. I leave the Reader to guess what such a Stabber of Reputations would stick to perpetrate.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Two Armies, 23. The bloodless stabber [Death] calls by night.
1872. Spurgeon, Treas. David, Ps. lix. 12. Wretches who are persecutors in talk, burners and stabbers with the tongue.
1910. Goldw. Smith, Remin., x. 181. The genius of the literary stabber.
2. Something that stabs, a knife, dagger, etc.
1581. Derricke, Image Irel., II. F ij. Long stabbers plucke thei forthe, in steede of handsome kniues.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 275/1. Sica,… a priuye or close dagger: a stabber.
1913. H. Scheffauer, in Engl. Rev., Nov., 516. But now we’ve got his stabber, and he can’t do us any harm at all, at all.
b. spec. (See quots.)
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 87. Holes in sails are made with an instrument, called a stabber or a pegging-awl.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stabber, a marling-spike; a sailmaker’s pricker.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Stabber, 1. (Leather.) A pegging-awl. A pricker. 2. (Nautical.) A marlinspike. 3. (Domestic.) A lady’s awl for opening holes for eyelets.
3. (See quot.)
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Stabber, a person (generally a boy) who is employed to stitch the upper leathers of boots and shoes with an awl.
1881. Leicestersh. Gloss.
