weedern.
/ˈwiːdə/, U.S. /ˈwidər/ 1.
a. A person employed to clear land, a crop, etc., of weeds; a person who pulls up or otherwise removes weeds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > reclamation > [noun] > clearing land > weeding or weed control > weeder
weedera1398
louker14..
weeding woman1710
weed inspector1884
weeding gang1921
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xvii. xxxvi. 931 Þer is oþer maner carduus þat is enemy to corn..and haþ moche seede, and may vnneþe..be destroyed þer it growiþ oones but þe weederes [L. cultoris] bysily drawe vp þe more and roote.
1450–1 in J. A. Kingdon Arch. Worshipful Company of Grocers (1886) II. 313 Also for..stakes rayles to the gardyn, gardeners and weders, xlv s vj d.
1534 Accts. St. John's Hosp., Canterbury (Canterbury Cathedral Archives: CCA-U13/4) For mett & drynk for ij weders ij days, ij d.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry ii. f. 52v The beddes and the borders must be so cast, as the weeders handes may reache to the middest of them.
1645 G. Wither Vox Pacifica 74 Some Weeds, and Corne, are in the blade so like, That many Weeders have deceived bin.
a1722 E. Lisle Observ. Husbandry (1757) 385 My wheat was putting out into ear when I sent weeders to weed it.
1827 J. Clare Shepherd's Cal. 47 Each morning now, the weeders meet To cut the thistle from the wheat.
1870 Inq. Yorks. Deaf & Dumb 20 He is employed as weeder in the garden at Wighill Park.
1963 C. Jayawardena in J. Mogey Family & Marriage 52 The older men..work as weeders, manurers, grasscutters and at other miscellaneous types of work.
2015 N. Bilyeau Tapestry x. 70 I don't plant, oh no... I'm a weeder, mistress.
b. A tool or implement used to cut away, dig out, or otherwise remove weeds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > weeding tools
weed hookeOE
weeding hook1378
weedera1425
brier-crook1483
tongs?1523
weeding knife1598
broom-hook1660
weeder knifea1796
shovel-plough1801
extirpator1807
shovel-cultivator1869
thistle-digger1877
thistle-spud1896
thistle-cutter1901
flamethrower1915
flame gun1931
weed cutter2000
a1425 Medulla Gram. (Stonyhurst) f. 56v Runcio, a wedere [c1480 Pepys Weder] or a gropere.
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 519 Wedare, runco.
1650 E. Williams Virginia's Discov. Silke-worms 2 An intervall may bee made to the Weeder in the weeding of such things as may hinder the Mulberries growth.
1733 W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farming i. 8 The Plow, which, by the Attest of our Farmers, is..the best Weeder of any.
1862 D. T. Ansted & R. G. Latham Channel Islands iv. xx. 478 Weeding is commonly done by hand with a small weeder.
1875 J. Grant One of Six Hundred I. ii. 21 Occupied with a weeder, which he always carried, and with which the ends of all his walking-sticks were furnished.
1923 Today's Housewife Aug. 19/1 Keep the soil..loosened with a hand weeder or ‘claw’.
2013 Irish Farmers Jrnl. 6 Apr. 54/3 The company has been manufacturing weeders for many years but their tined versions were having problems in no-till crops where there is some residue from straw.
2. figurative.
a. A person who eradicates errors, flaws, vices, etc., or removes harmful or undesirable persons or things; a person who removes or excludes individuals regarded as inferior, superfluous, or unfit for purpose from a group. Cf. weeder out n. at Compounds 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > removal or displacement > [noun] > clearing or sweeping away > riddance > of selected undesirable things or persons > one who
weeder1607
1607 R. Parker Scholasticall Disc. against Antichrist ii. v. 2 The Magistrate must be a remoouer, or reviver of the Ceremonies controversed: a weeder or a waterer of them.
1727 W. Broome Poems 5 These learned Triflers are mere Weeders of an Author, they collect the Weeds for their own use, and permit others to gather the Herbs and Flowers.
1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World II. 36 Hail, O ye dim-sighted politicians, ye weeders of men!
1802 R. Southey Let. 6 June in C. C. Southey Life & Corr. R. Southey (1850) II. 289 Novales was the correspondent of Reserdius..and was, like him, an excellent Latinist, and a patient, cautious, martyr-murdering antiquary, an excellent weeder of lies wherever they were to be found.
1883 Union Signal (Chicago) 4 Oct. 7/1 Rulers and magistrates are weeders, rooting out, as far as they can, the pests of society.
1962 Filson Club Hist. Q. July 210 As Secretary he was known as a ruthless reformer, a reducer of debt, and a weeder of incompetents.
1988 Jrnl. Amer. Chamber of Commerce in Japan Aug. 64/2 This may not be your only interview, but you may have to pass a general weeder of applicants first.
2000 U. Segerstråle Defenders of Truth xi. 223 The critics' fundamental conception of the role of the scientist as a weeder of bad science was hard for planters to understand or accept.
b. spec. A person employed to remove or exclude books, documents, etc., regarded as superfluous or not worth retaining from a library, file, collection of papers, etc.; (also, in governmental or official contexts) one employed to remove or withhold sensitive or potentially damaging material from an archive, set of papers for publication, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > free will > choice or choosing > types of choice > [noun] > selecting from a number or for a purpose > separating valuable part from worthless > one who
winnower1871
weeder1914
1914 Appendices 2nd Rep. Royal Comm. Public Rec. II: Pt. ii. i. 14/2 in Parl. Papers (Cd. 7545) XLVI. 293 The weeders are..always on their guard against destroying a paper which has been of sufficient importance to be recorded specially in the index of decisions, &c., kept by the Central Registry.
1942 Wisconsin Libr. Bull. June 90/1 Travel and Biography..yield a few volumes to the weeder's hand, but not many.
1966 Times 12 Dec. 7/2 An internal investigation conducted by the Foreign Office has concluded that..the papers were destroyed by ‘weeders’ in 1953 when they worked on this file.
1983 W. Garner Think Big, think Dirty vii. 101 The weeders worked in Central Registry, thinning down documentation as it grew bulky, repetitive or outdated.
2010 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Feb. 7/4 For years, teams of ‘weeders’ have been quietly operating at the US National Archives, closing down thousands of pages of historical documents that had been open to scholars for years.
Compounds
C1. With adverbs.
weeder out n. a person who or thing which weeds out someone or something (in various senses of to weed out at weed v. Phrasal verbs).
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > removal or displacement > [noun] > clearing or sweeping away > riddance > of selected undesirable things or persons
weeding out1558
weeder out1559
weeding1589
weed-out1873
1559 W. Bavand tr. J. Ferrarius Common Weale iv. ii. f. 60 O Philosophie, the leader of our life, the emplantour of vertue, the weeder out of vyces, what shoulde either I or the whole life of man be, withoute thee.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III i. iii. 123 I was a packhorse in his great affaires, A weeder out of his proud aduersaries.
1598 B. Yong tr. A. Pérez 2nd Pt. Diana in tr. J. de Montemayor Diana 228 Thou art a weeder out Of vices, from the place of vertues graine.
1830 G. Griffin Tracy's Ambition ii, in Rivals II. 127 So this great croppy-gardener, this weeder-out of disaffection, is come, with his hoes and rakes and nippers, to make the ground clear in our neighbourhood?
1876 Idaho Avalanche 26 Aug. A weeder-out of the rotten and criminal from the public service.
1912 Life & Health Sept. 551/1 Alcohol..needs some one to champion its cause, if even on the theory that it is useful as a weeder-out of the unfit.
2005 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 18 June 1447/1 Were the government to embark on such public spirited legislation, it would..need to set up another regulating body to revalidate and ‘weed out’ the revalidators and ‘weeders out’.
C2. attributive.
a. Designating a person employed to clear weeds from land, a crop, etc., as weeder woman, weeder man, etc. Now chiefly historical.
ΚΠ
1733 Pract. Husbandman & Planter I. i. 144 Let the careful Gardener set his Weeder-Women or Boys..to pick off and destroy all those Snails and Slugs.
1748 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 10 July (1965) I. 404 I generally rise at six, and as soon as I have breakfasted, put my selfe at the head of my Weeder Women, and work with them till nine.
1870 Sunday School Helper Feb. 48 Our Lady she spake to those weeder-men now.
a1974 M. P. Alladin 12 Short Stories 28 At well over seventy years of age, he could still work as hard as any drainerman or cane cutter, or weederman or forkerman in the estate.
2001 C. Quest-Ritson Eng. Garden (2003) i. 54 Weeding was certainly women's work and weeder women were a feature of gardening until well into the nineteenth century.
b. Designating a tool or implement used to cut away, dig out, or otherwise remove weeds, as weeder hoe, weeder knife, etc.For possible earlier currency see note in etymology.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > weeding tools
weed hookeOE
weeding hook1378
weedera1425
brier-crook1483
tongs?1523
weeding knife1598
broom-hook1660
weeder knifea1796
shovel-plough1801
extirpator1807
shovel-cultivator1869
thistle-digger1877
thistle-spud1896
thistle-cutter1901
flamethrower1915
flame gun1931
weed cutter2000
the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > mattock, hoe, or hack > hoe > other types of hoe
pecker1588
weeding hoe1619
griffaun1780
breast hoe1787
draw hoe1822
hazel hoe1835
jembe1860
Canterbury hoea1887
Swoe1954
weeder hoe1978
a1796 R. Burns Wks. (1800) III. 378 The rough bur-thistle, spreading wide Amang the bearded bear, I turn'd the weeder-clips aside, An' spar'd the symbol dear.
1872 Commissioners of Patents' Jrnl. 9 July 1452/1 New and useful improvements in ferrules and sockets now in ordinary use for hoe fork, weeder rake, or chisel handles.
1891 Rural New-Yorker 24 Jan. 73/3 We have looked for a weeder attachment on cultivators before now.
1915 Gleanings Bee Culture 15 Sept. 780/2 This was put in with a drill (between the rows) with a weeder tool to work the seed into the soil after the seed had been dropped on the surface.
1978 A. J. Huxley Illustr. Hist. Gardening iv. 119 The push-pull weeder hoe—with a flat oblong blade sharpened on both edges.
2017 Industr. Lubrication & Tribol. July 516/1 Some typical medium carbon steel components are shaft, gear, piston, connecting rod, plough share, rotavator blade and weeder blade.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2019; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.a1398