? Obs. Also 4 walkere, 5 -ar, 5–6 walkar(e, Sc. walcar, 7–8 Sc. wakar, -er, wau(l)ker. [OE. wealcere (once, gl. fullo) (M)LG., (M)Du. walker, OHG. walkari (MHG., mod.G. walker), agent-n. f. OTeut. *walkan WALK v.2 The Teut. word is the source of It. gualchiere fuller.] One who fulls cloth, a fuller.

1

c. 1050.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 407/29. Fullones, wealceres.

2

c. 1300.  Beket, 1135. To Lincolne he com. At a walkeres house his in he nom there.

3

1379.  Poll-tax W. Riding, in Yorks. Archæol. Jrnl., V. 25. Johannes Louot’ & Alicia vxr ejus, Walkere, xijd.

4

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 409. Þey smyte out his brayn wiþ a walkere his perche [L. pertica fullonis].

5

1435.  Coventry Leet Bk., 172. No walker off the Cite of Couentre … Shall Rakke no Clothe on the Tey[n]tur that schall be solde ffor wette-clothe.

6

1511–2.  Act 3 Hen. VIII., c. 6 § 1. The Walker and Fuller shall truely walke fulle thikke and werke every webbe of wollen yerne.

7

1560.  Maitl. Club Misc., III. 227. Williame Cowpar ane walcar dwelland in Edinburgh.

8

16[?].  Boy & Mantle, 53. She curst the wearer and the walker, That clothe that had wrought.

9

a. 1779.  D. Graham, Writ. (1883), II. 149. They … scour’d their din skins as a wauker does worsted blankets.

10

1871.  J. H. Thomson, in Cloud of Witnesses, 566, note. John Parker was a waulker in East Kilbride.

11

1876.  Mid-Yorks. Gloss.

12

  b.  attrib. (and later, in possessive compounds), in names of implements, materials, etc., used in fulling cloth. Walker(’s earth, clay (now dial.) = FULLER’S earth.

13

13[?].  Cursor M., 21144 (Gött.). A wicked iuu … Smate him wid a walker stang.

14

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, vii. (James Minor), 215. Þane ane, a walkare perk, hynt & gafe sancte Iamis sic a dynte þat he þe harne-pane brak in twyn.

15

1403.  Nottingham Rec., II. 20. Unum stryk de walkerherth.

16

a. 1425.  Cursor M., 21144 (Trin.). Þei … Siþen smoot him with a walker staue.

17

c. 1450.  Mirk’s Festial, 140. Þerwyth a curset man of hom wyth a walkerys staf smot hym on þe hed.

18

1497.  in N. Riding Rec., N. S. (1894), I. 188. A payer Sheres, called Walkar Sheres.

19

1583.  L. M[ascall], Profit. Bk., A ij b. Then take a quantity of walkars claye, called Fullars earth.

20

1600.  Surflet, Country Farm, II. lvii. 393. Walkers earth, or other scouring earth.

21

1703.  Thoresby, Let. to Ray (E. D. S.). Walker’s earth for scowring the cloth.

22

1847.  Archæol. Jrnl., IV. 147. A species of fuller’s earth called ‘walker’s clay.’

23