[f. TACK v.1 + -ER1.]
1. One who tacks: in various senses.
a. Eng. Hist. One who favored the tacking of other bills in parliament to money-bills, in order to secure their passage through the House of Lords; esp. in early 18th c., one who advocated tacking the bill against occasional conformity, 1704, to a money-bill.
1704. Sir H. Mackworth (title), A Letter … Giving a short Account of the Proceedings of the Tackers, upon the Occasional and Self-denying Bills [etc.].
1705. (title) Daniel the Prophet no Conjurer, or his Scandal Club’s Scandalous Ballad, called the Tackers, answer’d Paragraph by Paragraph.
1705. Hearne, Collect., 27 Oct. (O.H.S.), I. 59. He was a Tacker, and a true Friend of ye Church.
1711. Medley, No. 35. 384. A very bold Attempt was made upon the Civil and Religious Rights of our Fellow-Subjects, by certain Men call’d Tackers or High-Church-men.
1727. Brice’s Week. Jrnl., 25 Aug., 2. One of the Gentlemen distinguished by the Name of a Tacker in the Reign of King William III.
1859. W. Chadwick, De Foe, v. 280. Every kind of rascality was attempted to be passed through the Lords by its being tacked to a money bill, and by its being called a money bill; whence the term tacker.
b. In various trades, One who tacks or fastens articles or parts of things; also, a machine for putting or driving in tacks.
1727. Bailey, vol. II. Tacker, one who fastens or fixes one Thing to another by Tacks, or by Sewing, etc.
1884. E. Simcox, in 19th Cent., June, 1041. A preparer of collars and wristbands, known as a ‘tacker and turner’ [in shirt-making].
1892. Labour Commission Gloss., Tacker, one who puts in the tacks used in ‘lasting.’
1895. Daily News, 16 March, 6/5. Works … fitted with the latest types of machinery for all purposes, except the magnetic tacker.
2. dial. A small child.
1885. Reports Provinc. (E.D.D.). Ever since I was a little tacker.
1893. Q. [Couch], Delect. Duchy, 220. I’ve [not] a-zet eyes ’pon the young man since he was a little tacker.
