[f. BRUISE v. + -ER1.]
1. One who bruises or crushes.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., III. xviii. 81. The Brooser of the Serpents head.
1738. Wesley, Hymn ‘Praise by all to Christ be given,’ xvi. Serpent, see in us thy Bruiser, Feel his Power.
1863. J. G. Murphy, Comm. Gen. iii. 20. 148. These children are the seed, among whom is to be the bruiser of the serpent’s head and the author of life.
2. In the phraseology of the prize-ring: A professional boxer, a prize-fighter.
1744. H. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann (1834), II. cxvi. 6. He let into the pit great numbers of bear-garden bruisers (that is the term) to knock down everybody that hissed.
1754. Connoisseur, No. 10 (1774), I. 77. Has no more claims to heroism, than the case-hardened valour of a bruiser or prize-fighter.
1796. J. Anstey, Pleader’s Guide, 202. A secret joy the Bruiser knows In giving and receiving blows.
1811. Byron, Curse Min., xi. Be all the bruisers cull’d from all St. Giles’.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, x. 330. Polydeuces was a notable bruiser.
3. Hunting slang. See BRUISE v. 7.
1830. R. Eg.-Warburton, Hunt. Songs, Woore Country, vi. On a light thorough-bred there’s a bruiser.
4. A concave tool used in grinding lenses or the specula of telescopes.
1777. Mudge, in Phil. Trans., LXVII. 304. A concave tool or bruiser, with which … the brass grinder, and the hones are to be formed.
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Arts, II. 108. All the emery strokes are ground off from the bruiser.
