[f. TREMBLE v. + -ER1: cf. F. trembleur.] One who or that which trembles.
1. One who trembles, esp. with fear; a timorous or terrified person.
1552. Huloet, Trembler, tremulus, i.
a. 1660. Hammond, Serm. Matt. xi. 30, Wks. 1684, IV. 479. Those base submissions, that the covetous Mammonist or cowardly trembler drudges under.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 199. Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace The day’s disasters in his morning face.
1878. Seeley, Stein, II. 531. A frightened trembler and maker of obeisances.
† 2. A name given to those whose devotional exercises were accompanied by trembling, quaking, or shaking; spec. a Quaker. Obs. or Hist.
[1678. R. Barclay, Apol. Quakers, xi. § 8 (1736), 359. Sometimes the Power of God will break forth;… every individual will be strongly exercised, as in a Day of Battle; and thereby Trembling and a Motion of Body will be upon most, if not upon all:… And from this, the name of Quakers, i. e. Tremblers, was first Reproachfully cast upon us.]
1689. R. Ware, Foxes & Firebrands, III. 198. These Sectaries … be as follows: 1 Independents … 17 Quakers, or Tremblers.
1706. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., XV. 21. Of these quaint primitive Dissemblers, In old queen Bess’s Days call’d Tremblers.
a. 1741. Chalkley, Wks. (1766), 101. I was one called a Quaker, or Trembler.
1820. trans. Trav. Cosmo III. (1821), 447. The sect of the Tremblers or Quakers was begun by James Naylor.
3. transf. Applied to a. a fish that gives an electric shock, as the electric eel of Africa; b. a bird or other animal that keeps up a shaking motion of the tail or body.
1832. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. 106. The trembler, or Silurus electricus [belongs] to the rivers of Africa.
1867. Sclater & Salvin, Exotic Ornithol., Pl. x. Cinclocerthia ruficauda, (Red-tailed Trembler).
1911. Webster, Trembler, any of certain West Indian birds of the genera Cinclocerthia and Rhamphocinclus, of the family Mimidæ.
4. Electr. A vibrating spring blade that alternately makes and breaks the circuit in an induction coil.
1877. Telegr. Jrnl., 15 Nov., 280/1. M. Trouvé, Paris, has made some improvements in the contact-breaker or trembler of induction coils. Ibid. Vibrating stem of the trembler.
1903. Motor. Ann., 80. Troubles … caused through the petrol, float-jet, or tremblers not having been understood by the motorist.
1907. Daily News, 10 April, 6. Next the trembler in the coil stuck, and the engine stopped.
5. attrib. (in sense 4), as trembler-blade, -coil; trembler-bell, an electric bell rung by a hammer attached to a trembler; also called trembling bell.
1884. in Jrnl. Franklin Inst. (1886), CXXI. Supp. 69. Audible signals are given … on board the locomotive by a *trembler bell.
1905. Preece & Sivewright, Telegraphy (new ed.) 254. There are many forms of these trembler bells, but the principle in all is alike.
1904. in Westm. Gaz., 28 May, 5/3. The *trembler blade which governs the spark, and is in its turn controlled by the movement of the motor. Ibid. (1908), 6 Feb., 4/2. The ignition is effected by high-tension magneto and accumulator with *trembler-coil and self-starting switch.
