Forms: 5 tarrer(e, 6 tarryour, 7–8 terrier, 9 tarrier. [In 15th c. tarrer(e, a. OF. tarere (c. 1200 in Godef.), mod.F. tarière:—late L. taratrum (Isidore XIX. xix. 15, ‘taratrum quasi teratrum’): cf. Gr. τέρετρον borer, gimlet.] A boring instrument, an auger; now, an instrument for extracting a bung from a barrel.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 65. Looke þow haue tarrers two a more & lasse for wyne. Ibid., 71. So when þow settyst a pipe abroche…. With tarrere or gymlet perce ye vpward þe pipe ashore.
1513. Bk. Keruynge, in Babees Bk. (1868), 266. Than loke ye haue two tarryours, a more & a lesse.
1611. Cotgr., Terriere, a Terrier, or Augar.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Terrier … a sort of Awger to bore with.
1904. Daily Chron., 19 Feb., 3/2. A London cellarman asks for his ‘tarrier’ to take out a bung from the barrel.
