[f. STARCH v. and sb. + -ER1.]
1. One whose employment or trade is to starch linen.
c. 1515. Cocke Lorell’s B. (Percy Soc.), 10. Butlers, sterchers, and musterde makers.
1598. Florio, Amitatrice, a starcher.
1614. Stow, Ann., 869/1. [In 1564] Mistris Dinghen … came to London … and there professed herselfe a starcher.
1669. E. Chamberlayne, Pres. State Eng., I. xiv. 302. Of the Queen Consorts Court…. A Laundress, a Semstress, a Starcher.
1725. Bradley’s Family Dict., s.v. Clear Starching, Most Starchers boil their Muslins, which they should not by reason it wears them out.
1893. Laundry Management, ix. 63. People of inventive turns of mind have stepped in the breach to help the starchers, offering them prepared glazes.
2. A starched neckcloth; also attrib.
1818. (title) Neckclothitania; or, Tietania: being an Essay on Starchers. Ibid., 38. If this be true … a furious effort must be made unanimously by all starcher-wearers, to stop it in its birth.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, i. 3. If [he wore] a striped waistcoat, then the starcher would be imbued with somewhat of the same colour and pattern.
3. A starching machine.
1893. Laundry Management, ix. 65. In machine starching, the liquid starch is poured into a dash-wheel revolving washer or special starcher.
1909. Daily Chron., 3 Sept., 6/6. Contents of Laundry, 6 washing machines, two starchers.
