Also 8 uphoulstarer, upholdsterer. [f. UPHOLSTER sb. + -ER1 3.] A tradesman or shopkeeper whose business is the making, finishing, or repairing of articles of furniture and other house-furnishings in which woven or similar fabrics, or materials used for stuffing these, are employed.
1613. Marston, Insatiate Countesse, C j b. The fault’s in my Vpholsterer, Lady.
1653. W. Ramesey, Astrol. Restored, 132. If thou makest the childe … Perfumer,… Glover or Upholsterer.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1233/4. Mr. Cooke an Upholsterer next door to the Star.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1754), 111. Upholdsterers, Joyners, Cabinet-makers.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., II. i. I. 334. Upholsterers frequently lett furniture by the month or by the year.
1823. Bentham, Not Paul, 85. Tent-making: an art, in which the operations of the architect and the upholsterer are combined.
1875. W. S. Hayward, Love agst. World, 6. Painters, decorators, upholsterers,… were immediately set to work.
fig. 1642. T. Trescot, Zeal. Magist., 14. Better to meet with sound Reprovers,… than the Devills Vpholsterers.
1779. Hervey, Nav. Hist., II. 459. This led the prince of Conti to call Luxembourg ‘The Upholsterer of Notre Dame.’
b. transf. Applied to certain bees and birds. Also attrib.
1830. J. Rennie, Insect Archit., 53. The leaf-cutting bees … may be denominated more generally ‘upholsterer-bees,’ as there are some of them which use other materials beside leaves.
1840. Westwood, Introd. Mod. Classif. Insects, II. 272. They have been termed … upholsterer bees;… the upholsterers employ in the construction of their cells portions of leaves.
1890. C. Dixon, Ann. Bird Life, 84. Upholsterers.—The birds which come into the present group comprise the Ducks and Geese.
