[f. STAMP v. + -ER1.]
1. One who stamps with the feet; † one who treads (grapes). Also with out (cf. STAMP v. 3 d).
1388. Wyclif, Amos ix. 13. And the stampere [1382 treder] of grape schal take the man sowynge seed.
1913. E. C. Bentley, Trent’s Last Case, 6. He stood in every eye as the unquestioned guardian of stability, the stamper-out of manipulated crises, the foe of the raiding chieftains that infest the borders of Wall Street.
1914. J. H. Skrine, Pastor Futurus, xxii. 180. Breaker of bruised reeds and stamper on smoking flax.
b. Med. (See quot.)
1901. Dorland, Med. Dict. (ed. 2), Stamper, a person affected with locomotor ataxia; so called because of the peculiar stamping gait of that disease.
c. Ornith. (See quot.)
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 240. Forced to rise by stamping with the feet on the ground; from this latter circumstance, the birds have been named Calcatores (stampers).
2. One who uses a stamp or works a stamping machine; one who marks an impression (on something) with a stamp. (In several trades the designation of a special class of workmen.) Also fig.
1556. Charter Stationers’ Co., in Entick, London (1766), IV. 227. Any stamper, printer, binder or seller of any manner of books.
1621. J. Archbold, Beauty of Holiness, 6. The Holy Ghost, as the immediate stamper of this impression of holinesse in the spirits of men.
1735. J. Chamberlayne, Pres. St. Gt. Brit., II. III. (ed. 31), 90. [Officers for the Stamp Duties.] The Names of the Thirty-Nine Stampers.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6449, The stampers [in needle manufacture] make a perforation partly through the wires.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 263/1. The early stampers were timid, and used only shallow dies.
b. A postal employé who applies the postmark and obliterates the postage stamps on letters and postal packets.
1850. Ogilvie, s.v., In the Glasgow post-office there are four stampers.
1901. Scotsman, 26 Dec., 8/1. The swiftest stamper in the office … has obliterated [with the machine] the stamps of 268 faced letters in a minute.
3. An instrument used in stamping.
a. A pestle, rammer.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, f ij. He … took a stamper and brake the two legges of his wyf.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, III. lii. 551. Lay nutmegs on heapes, bray them with a woodden stamper.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl. s.v. Beetle, For the military use, beetles, called also stampers, are thick round pieces of wood…. Their use is for beating or settling the earth of a parapet.
1869. A. R. Wallace, Malay Archip., vi. (1874), 92. [The Dyak woman] has an hour’s work every evening to pound the rice with a heavy wooden stamper.
b. (Chiefly pl.) The pestle or each of several pestles in a crushing or pounding machine, esp. in a stamping mill = STAMP sb.3 9.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 12. Of late times they mostly vse wet stampers, and so haue no need of the crazing mils for their best stuffe.
1674. Petty, Dupl. Proportion, 64. Water gushing out upon the floats of Under-shot Mills; as may be seen in the Stampers of Paper-Mills.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L. (1793), § 201. It is beat by iron-headed Stampers upon an iron bed.
1872. W. W. Smyth, Mining Statistics, 51. The crushing machine has 48 stampers, in twelve batteries of four stampers each. Each stamper weighs 6 cwt.
c. A hat-maker’s tool: See quots.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 386/1. The Felt-makers, (or more generally termed Hat-makers) Instrument called a Stamper.
1745. De Coetlogon’s Hist. Arts & Sci., II. 106/2. A Stamper … is a Piece of Iron or Copper, bent. Ibid., 107/1. We’ll proceed to give it the proper Form, by laying the conical Cap on a wooden Block of the intended Size of the Crown of the Hat; and thus tie it round with the Commander, which we’ll beat and gradually drive down all round with the Stamper.
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 295. (Hatter), These inequalities are reduced … in which the assistance of a copper instrument called a ‘stamper’ is found available.
d. An instrument for beating leather. (Cf. STAMP sb.3 11.)
1852. Morfit, Tanning & Currying (1853), 227. The stamper leaves the surface of the leather [etc.].
4. slang. pl. Shoes; feet. ? Obs.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), 83. Stampers, shooes.
1652. Brome, Joviall Crew, I. Wks. III. 366. Strike up Piper a merry merry dance That we on our stampers may foot it and prance.
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 20. From thy stampers then remove Thy Drawers [i.e., stockings].
1676. Coles, Dict., Stampers, shoes or carriers.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Deuseavile-Stampers, County-Carriers.
1819. Sporting Mag., V. 123. Coster-mongers, in all their gradations, down to the Stampers.
1824. Egan, Boxiana, IV. 265. The leaky stampers gave symptoms of ague touches to their miserable owners, who had not better soles for the trying occasion.
6. Conch. In book-names of certain shells. ? Obs.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., X. 98. Marbled Luzone Stamper, with a flesh-coloured and black Mouth. Ibid. (1713), Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ, Tab. ii. Cylindrus … Prince Stamper. Voluta Musicalis … Horn-Book Stamper.
6. attrib., as stamper battery, box, press.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 21 May, 2/1. In a *stamper battery the stone is thrown into an oblong iron box, in which five bars of iron … are made to rise and fall alternately.
1872. W. W. Smyth, Mining Statistics, 51. The *stamper boxes are fitted with false bottoms.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stamper-press, a press for stamping sheet metal.
1911. Encycl. Brit., XX. 47/1. The Dutch or stamper press, invented in Holland in the 17th century, was up to the early years of the 19th century almost exclusively employed in Europe for pressing oil-seeds.
