[f. WHET v. + -ER1.]
1. A sharpener of an instrument.
1556. Withals, Dict. (1562), 20 a/2. A whetter, acutor, qui instrumenta acuit.
1611. Cotgr., Affileur, a whetter, or sharpener of edg’d tooles.
1781. J. Moore, View Soc. It., lxxi. II. 363.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Whetter, a sharpener; as a whetstone, hone.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 45. Blade Whetter.
† 2. fig. One who urges on. Obs.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., XVIII. 1096. The blacke bands … serued as good examples and whetters on of the residue of his armye.
3. fig. One who or that which sharpens, stimulates, or incites the intellect, desires, appetite, etc.
1617. Fletcher, Valentinian, IV. i. You whetters of my follies.
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., II. xii. Wks. (1712), 82. Sympathy and Antipathy … are notable whetters and quickeners of the Spirit of Life in all Animals.
1695. Congreve, Love for L., I. i. The Air upon Banstead Downs is nothing to it for a Whetter.
1742. Fielding, J. Andrews, III. ii. Love, like other sweet things, is no whetter of the stomach.
1830. Scott, Jrnl., 11 July (1890), II. 348. No whetter of genius is necessity, though said to be the mother of invention.
b. spec. A habitual drinker of ‘whets’ (WHET sb. 2 b); a dram-drinker. ? Obs.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 138, ¶ 4. A sort of Persons commonly known by the Name of Whetters, who drink themselves into an intermediate State of being neither drunk or sober before the Hours of ’Change.
1725. View Lond. & Westminster, 38. Here is likewise a religious Ambulatory for the Whetters and Wenchers.
c. = WHET sb. 2 b. ? Obs.
1755. Connoisseur, No. 87, ¶ 1. They frequently have recourse to whetters and provocatives, to anticipate the call of hunger.
1824. in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1825), 205. Fifty verses we’ve sung—and we scarce can do better, Than to finish our ditty by taking a whetter.
