[f. LIFT v. + -ER1.] One who or that which lifts in senses of the vb.
1. One who lifts or raises, in either a material or an immaterial sense. Also with up.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. iii. 3. Thou (o Lorde) art … the lifter vp of my heade.
1552. Huloet, Lifter wyth leuere, phalangarius.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Llevador, a bearer, a lifter.
1649. Prynne, Demurrer to Jews’ Remitter, 83. The greatest designers, plotters and lifters up of themselves against the interest of Christ.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 156/2. Musick … is a lifter of Dead, Drowsie and Melancholly Spirits.
1775. Johnson, Western Isl., Wks. X. 401. Long pieces of wood … to which the action of a long line of lifters might be applied.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 927. Two men at a vat, and a boy as a layer or lifter can make about 6 or 8 reams in 10 hours.
1873. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma (1876), 366. The lifter-up to the nations of the banner of righteousness.
b. One who takes up dishonestly; a thief. Cf. cattle-lifter, shop-lifter.
a. 1592. Greene, Jas. IV., III. i. Why, I am a lifter, maister, by occupation.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 129. Is he so young a man, and so old a lifter?
1674–80. Cotton, Compl. Gamester, 5. Pads, Biters, Divers, Lifters … these may all pass under the general … appellation of Rooks.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxix. Ye needna ask whae Rob Roy is, the reiving lifter that he is.
1862. Athenæum, 30 Aug., 278. While in the ‘lifter’s’ possession … they [books] had been enriched by numerous annotations.
1885. Erminie, 11. We are shifters, we are lifters, Working skillfully together.
c. One of a sect of Scottish presbyterians who considered it essential that the officiating minister should ‘lift’ a piece of sacramental bread while uttering the prayer of consecration.
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scotl., II. 520. Hence … originated a schism, and the two parties were distinguished by the name of lifters and anti-lifters.
2. Something that lifts or is used for lifting.
a. Something that elevates or raises, in either a material or an immaterial sense; applied also to any simple implement, e.g., † a crutch, † a fork, a curved piece of iron for lifting a stove-lid, and in mod. slang to a heavy blow. Also with up.
1570. Levins, Manip., 76/36. A Lifter, forke, fuscina.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Lifter, a Crutch.
1706. A. Bedford, Temple Mus., viii. 158. Sakeph Gadol, or the Greater Lifter up, as if it designed the Musick to be very Loud.
1867. W. W. Smyth, Coal & Coal-mining, 7. Used as a lifter of water to the top of water-wheels.
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., 665. Dreams … in antiquity, were thought to be of importance as lifters of the veil.
1889. ‘Mark Twain,’ Yankee at Crt. K. Arthur, xxxiii. 383. As long as I’m going to hit him at all, I’m going to hit him a lifter.
b. Technical uses: † (a) Anat. = LEVATOR 2. (b) Mining. The wooden beams used as stems for stamps in old-fashioned stamp-mills (Raymond, Mining Gloss.). (c) Magnetism. The cross-piece of soft iron applied to the poles of a horse-shoe magnet. (d) Weaving. ? An appliance for raising and depressing the leaves of the heddles. (e) Steam-engine. ‘The arm on a lifting-rod that raises the puppet-valve’ (Webster, 1864). (f) Paper-making. A bucket-wheel for raising the pulp from the reservoir to the trough. (g) Founding. ‘A tool for dressing the mold; also, a contrivance attached to a cope, to hold the sand together when the cope is lifted’ (Webster, 1864). (h) Surg. = ELEVATOR 2. (i) = lifting-cam.
(a) 1649. Bulwer, Pathomyot., II. i. 86. That Muscle of the shoulder-blade, from its office commonly called the Levator, or the Lifter.
(b.) 1671. Phil. Trans., VI. 2108. Suffering the Lifters to fall with great force on the Ore, thereby breaking it into small sand.
1860. Eng. & For. Mining Gloss. (Cornwall Terms), Lifters, wood beams, to which the iron heads of a stamping mill are fastened.
(c) 1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exper. Phil., IV. l. 387. The contact or lifter of soft iron to be placed at the other end of the bars.
1849. Noad, Electricity, 396. The soft iron lifter of a horse-shoe magnet.
(d) 1865. B. Brierley, Irkdale, I. 236. A weaver … upon a ‘jacquard’ loom, had the misfortune to break one of the irons of her lifter.
(f) 1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 938. The pressure of the pulp and water in the vat forces the pulp up the pipe into the lifter-box, whence it is taken by rotatory lifters, and discharged into a trough, where it runs down and mixes with the thick pulp from the chest.
(i) 1852. Burn, Nav. & Milit. Dict., II. Lifter or Lifting-cog, cam or wiper.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Aug., 5/1. The lifter raises the central lever or pawl.
