Also 6 (9 in sense 5) wyper. [f. WIPE v. + -ER1.]
1. A person who wipes; spec. in various industries, a workman employed in wiping something clean or dry. Also with adv., as away, out.
1552. Huloet, Wyper a waye of fylth from a mans body.
1842. Browning, Pied Piper, xv. Let me and you be wipers Of scores out with all men.
1875. Dora Greenwell, Liber Humanitatis, 141. A wiper away of the tears that none other but he and God behold.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 89. Glass Manufacture … Wiper-out.
1888. J. W. Clarke, Mod. Plumbing Pract. (1914), I. 99. So that when wiping the joint the solder will not burn the little finger of the wiper’s hand.
1889. B. Norton, in Scribner’s Mag., Aug., 220/2. [Locomotive]. For wipers and watchmen.
2. A cloth or other appliance used for wiping; in slang use, a handkerchief (later replaced by WIPE sb. 4).
1587. Acc. Mary Q. Scots (Camden), 59. For v ells canvas for butter clothes and wipers, iiij s.
1626. B. Jonson, Masque of Owls, 127. The wipers for their noses.
1685. Phil. Trans., XV. 1158. The fifth he calls the Wiper, supposing that by it they wipe off the honie from the flowers.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Wiper, a Handkerchief.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind., xli. II. 63. I rolled it up with any wiper.
1870. Daily News, 23 Sept., 6/3. The women in Holland clean their steps with an appliance combining the brush and wiper.
1890. Sci. Amer., 8 Nov., 297/1. Another movement [of a soldering machine] carries the can body across the wiper, which removes the superfluous solder.
b. = Wiping-rod: see WIPING vbl. sb. 3.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech.
3. One who or that which strikes or assails; in quots. applied to weapons. slang.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, V. iv. I could hulk your Grace, and hang you up cross-leg’d, Like a Hare at a Poulters, and do this with this wiper.
1890. Conan Doyle, Sign of Four, vii. 85. I have a wiper in this bag, an’ I’ll drop it on your ’ead if you don’t hook it!… Stand clear, for when I say ‘three’: down goes the wiper.
4. ‘A severe blow; also, a sharp rejoinder or taunt’ (Jam., 1882): = WIPE sb. 2, 3. slang or colloq.
1846. G. P. R. James, Step-mother, lxv. III. 144. I say, Jack, that was a wiper you gave me between the eyes.
5. In machinery, a projecting piece fixed on a rotating or oscillating part, as an axle or wheel, and periodically communicating movement by a rubbing action to some other part; a cam, eccentric or tappet; esp. one serving to lift a hammer, stamper, valve-rod, etc., which in the intervals falls by its own weight.
1796. Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Weaving (1861), 31. The treadles are worked by ‘wipers’ fastened on the main shaft.
1806. O. Gregory, Treat. Mechanics, II. 11. A great forge, where the engineer … formed the wipers into spirals, which communicated motion to the hammer almost without any jolt whatever.
1859. Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Weaving, 969. Over these treadles is a shaft carrying four double wypers containing two segments each.
attrib. 1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 152. The upper roller is furnished with wiper-wings. Ibid. (1839), Dict. Arts, 367. The wooden wiper-rollers covered with flannel.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 374. The steam is admitted both above and below the piston, by moving the slide with the handle of the wiper-shaft.
