Dictionary

doffer en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English doff Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English doffer From doff + -er.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:textile manufacturing) In a carding machine, a device such as a revolving cylinder or a vibrating bar with teeth, that doffs, that is to say strips off, the carded cotton or other fiber from the cards; or a hand tool for the same function in smaller machines or in manual carding.
2. A worker who replaces full bobbins by empty ones on the throstle or ring frames. The job was often done by children.
   • It has more varied exercises too than has the hand of the child who enters a mill. For though a doffer or factory child does use his hand all day long, it is but a very small group of muscles that is brought into activity. 1907, Margaret McMillan, Labour and Childhood, The Child-Hand To-Day:

Forms

Deriveds

doffer shaft · ring doffer

Relateds

doffing comb