piecern.

1764 H. G. Faber To Printer in Polite Misc. 137 Trade has been of late very slack, through means of some S—e Coblers, Patchers, and Heel-piecers, &c. who have endeavoured to undermine him, by repairing the tattered and worn out state of his work.

1836 New Monthly Mag. 48 70 Fancy's the wealth of wealth, the toiler's hope, The poor man's piecer-out.

1898 Catholic World July 509 One energetic little Frenchwoman is a splendid piecer of patchwork quilts.

1956 H. Gardner Limits Lit. Crit. ii. 25 The form-critic has reduced St. Mark to a mere piecer-and-stitcher-together of materials.

1990 Lady's Circle Art Quilts xv. 38 Flowers and quilts must go together, and piecers as well as appliqué artists find the combination irresistible.

1792 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Sc. II. 216 The numbers at the cotton mill..stood as follows:... Piecers to the jeannies 13.

1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 384 The pieces are joined by children, called piecers, who are in attendance on each mule, to join any yarn that may be broken in the act of stretching or twisting.

1857 D. Livingstone Missionary Trav. S. Afr. Introd. 3 I was put into the factory as a ‘piecer’.

1924 J. Marchant Dr. John Clifford i. 5 Three-fourths of the children were jackers-off or ‘piecers’.

1992 F. McLynn Hearts of Darkness i. ii. 42 Young David was apprenticed at the age of ten as a ‘piecer’ in a cotton mill.