[f. FALL v. + -ER1.]
1. One who falls, in various senses of the vb. † Also with adv., as faller off.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 147. Fallare, or he þat oftyn tyme fallythe, cadax.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 824/1. Jeroboam truly sacrificed, yea hee sacrificed vnto God: but because hee sacrificed not lawfully, he was accounted a straunger, and a faller off from ye true Church of God.
a. 1631. Laud, Serm. (1847), 13. Nor are we fallers out of the Church, but they fallers off from verity.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Rules for buying Horses, If scarr’d or hair-broken, it’s a true Mark of a stumbling Jade, and a perpetual Faller.
1890. Pall Mall G., 22 Aug., 1/2. Six riders were brought to grief … Being experienced fallers, however, nothing more serious than bruises resulted.
2. A feller of timber. Only dial.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., s.v. ‘The fallers bin on Esridge [Eastridge] coppy agen.’
3. The Hen-harrier (Circus cyaneus).
1885. in Swainson, Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 132.
† 4. A part of a mill for scouring clothes, etc.: (see quot.). Obs.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 107. There are Six or Eight Fallers (or Feet) which are taken and lifted up by the Axletree … and so fall down-right into a Box, or Chest, wherein the Cloth lyeth.
5. The name of various appliances in spinning machines. Also attrib.
1851. L. D. B. Gordon, Art Jrnl. Catal. Gt. Exhib., p. vi**/2. As the carriage approaches the roller-beam, the spinner gradually raises the faller-wire.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 396/1. Along the top of the spindles stretch two wires called the ‘fallers.’
