[f. as prec. + -ER. Cf. KEELER.]
1. Anything that cools or makes cool.
1575. Laneham, Lett. (1871), 53. But whoo so was found so hot in desyre, with the wreast of a Cok was sure of a coolar.
1685. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I. ii. 6. Wind is a Dryer, even as Frost a Cooler.
1797. Holcroft, Stolberg’s Trav. (ed. 2), IV. xcii. 235. They do not use ice as a cooler, but snow.
2. A vessel in which anything is cooled or set to cool; esp. one used for cooling the wort in brewing, or for similar purposes in other manufacturing processes.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 589. Boile it very well the second time with the hops, then … put it into the coolers and coole it.
1641. French, Distill., i. (1651), 34. A great Alembick, with its cooler or Copper Still.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. vi. 279. Shift your first Wort out of the Coolers into a Working-Tun.
1798. Bloomfield, Farmer’s Boy, Spring, 217. Streams of new milk thro’ flowing coolers stray.
1820. W. Scoresby, Arctic Regions, II. 398. On a little lower level than … the copper, is fixed a square or oblong back or cooler … capable of containing from 10 to 20 tons of oil.
1861. Wynter, Soc. Bees, 211. The boiling beer is now pumped up to the coolers.
3. A cooling medicine or agent; a refrigerant.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. II. 315. That the liuer be outwardly anointed with some coolers, that it be not ouerheated.
1671. Salmon, Sign. Med., III. xxii. Citruls, the seeds are great coolers in Feavers.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 7. An admirable febrifuge, at once the safest cooler and cordial.
1766. Pennant, Zool., I. 33. The milk [of the goat] is made into whey; which has done wonders in this and other cases, where coolers and restoratives are necessary.
4. fig. Anything that cools emotion, excitement, or ardor, or damps the spirits.
1592. Bp. Andrewes, Serm. (1843), V. 527. The Law, we know, is a great cooler to presumption.
1600. Abp. Abbot, Exp. Jonah, 27. This is a cooler both to the Pharisees and Novatians, who were wont to despise sinners.
1608. Hieron, Wks., I. 718. What coolers of zeale, what clogges in the way that leadeth vnto life.
1781. Crabbe, Library, 58. See coolers here, that damp the fire of rage.
1824. P. ‘Quiz’ (title), Fashionable Bores, or Coolers in High Life.
5. U.S. (Thieves’ slang.) A prison or jail.
1869. Rutland (VT) Daily Herald, 17 Aug., 3/3. Mr. Francis G. Simpson, an insane person, was locked up in the ‘cooler’ the other night at St. Albans for threatening to burn the residence of Mr. L. P. Kimpton.
1884. Milnor (Dakota) Teller, 8 Aug. Arrested on the charge of drunkenness, lodged in the cooler over night and then fined $5 in the morning. Ibid. (1885), 25 April. Now, then, I’ll give you a chance to keep out of the cooler!
