Also (only in sense 2) 6 boryer, 7 borier, borrier. [f. BORE v.1 + -ER1; the forms in -ier, yer, may be influenced by Fr. words in -ière, as tarière borer.]
1. One who bores or pierces.
1483. Cath. Angl., 37. A Borer; forator.
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, iv. 138. The millions are, and must be skilless, ploughers, delvers, borers.
1879. in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 10. To enable the borer to make a complete section of the strata.
b. A horse that ‘bores.’
1872. Lever, Ld. Kilgobbin, vi. 41. The best bit for a ‘borer.’
c. A name given to the Myxine or Hag-fish; also to the Teredo or shipworm; and to various insects which bore through wood, etc.
1789. Phil. Trans., LXXIX. 68. I should conceive it a preservative against the Borer, so destructive to ships in this part of the world.
1841. Orderson, Creol., ii. 9. The borer, a grub peculiar to the sugar cane, made such … ravage.
1879. Atcherley, Trip Boërland, 238. The depredations caused by an insect called the borer.
1884. J. Gibson, in Longm. Mag., March, 525. The Hagfish or ‘Borer.’… Penetrating the skin of the captured cod or ling, the ‘borer’ … devours the soft parts in an incredibly short time.
2. An instrument for boring: a. the tool employed for boring through rocks; b. the apparatus attached to the tail of boring-insects.
1572. J. Jones, Bathes Buckstone, 2 a. Boryers, such as mynerall men use in searching ore.
1623. Whitbourne, Newfoundland, 75. Taps, Boriers, and Funnels.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., vii. (1821), 556. With all the yron borriers, seven peeces in all.
1797. Phil. Trans., LXXXVII. 326. At the time the borer burst through.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol. (1817), 155. The awl or borer fixed at the tails of various species of flies.
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 Sept., 8/2. The borer having come in contact with a dynamite cartridge previously unexploded.
