playmakern.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 255/1 Playe maker, factevr, factiste.

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Apol. Poetrie (1595) sig. F3 Perchance it is the Comick, whom naughtie Play-makers and Stage-keepers, haue iustly made odious.

a1652 R. Brome Damoiselle Prol., in Five New Playes (1653) Our Playmaker (for yet he won't be calld Author, or Poet) nor beg to be installd Sir Lawreat) has sent me out.

1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses II. 261 He retired to the Metropolis, lived in Greys Inn, and set up for a playmaker.

?1779 T. Warton Let. in Corr. (1995) 412 The father..was..an admirer and lover of plays and play-makers, especially Shakespeare.

1812 Dramatic Censor 1811 182 This may be what our modern playmakers call light and shade.

1903 Notes & Queries 9th Ser. 11 201/2 He insults Greene, Elderton, Tarleton, and all play-actors and play-makers.

1953 Scrutiny 19 204/3 The Restoration playmakers did not exercise their classical imitation by ordering any general issues into any pattern.

1992 UNESCO Courier Feb. 37/1 The ‘worker’ poet or playmaker or prose fiction writer does not wish to emancipate him or herself from the condition of worker.

1931 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 18 Oct. i. 14/1 Waite is one of the outstanding centers of the game, a wonderful play maker and a great scorer as well.

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §662/2 Hockey... Playmaker, a player who does not attempt to score but puts the puck in place for the scorer.

1951 Sun (Baltimore) 12 Jan. 14/4 Bill Kelso, Patterson's playmaker at guard, is expected to be back in action tonight after missing the game against Southern.

1979 Guardian 26 Apr. 22/4 The Austrians could offer nothing in attack, where their elegant playmaker, Prohaska, continually dwelt on the ball.

1993 Rugby World & Post May 11/3 The Samoans had literally battled their way through in bruising encounters against first a jaded-looking Scotland and then a New Zealand outfit badly in need of a playmaker.