Also 5 lynnor, 5, 7 lyner, 6 lynar. [f. LINE sb.2 or LINE v.2]
I. Of persons.
1. Sc. An official whose duty is the tracing of the boundaries of properties in burghs.
14[?]. Burgh Laws, cv. (Sc. Stat. I). Þe saidis lyneris sall suer þat þai sall leilly lyne in lenth as braidnes baith foir part and back part of þe land according to þe richt and auld merchis withyn þe burgh.
1461. Extracts Burgh Recs. Peebles (1872), 139. Thir ar the lynnoris to serf the burgh of Pebillis: + Wylyem Bulle, Rychart Cant [etc.].
1541. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 453. It was fundyn and determynit be the lynaris anence the debatis betuex Iohne Henrisone Culane … and Iohn Nachty, twcheing thair landis liand in the Gastraw [etc.].
1894. K. Hewat, Little Scottish World, i. 21. The Liner has still important duties to perform in tracing the boundaries of properties, and in settling disputes as to the same.
2. One whose business it is to paint lines on the wheels, etc., of carriages. Also liner-out.
1819. P. O. Lond. Direct., 299. Salmon, Thos., Springer and Liner, King-street, Clerkenwell.
1884. B’ham Daily Post, 28 July, 3/3. Carriage-painters.—Wanted, two good Liners-out and Varnishers.
3. A writer of miscellaneous items for the newspapers, which are paid for at so much per line. (Cf. PENNY-A-LINER.)
1861. Dutton Cook, Paul Foster’s Daughter, xix. II. 87. Because now and then a liner is found in the gutter, it doesn’t do to cry shame on every man that wields a pen.
1865. Reader, 20 May, 567/1. The account in the New York World of the pursuit and capture of Booth is by a prince amongst liners.
4. One who ‘lines’ a tree. (Cf. quot. 1890 s.v. LINE v.2 2.)
1880. Lumberman’s Gaz., Jan., 28. The scorers and liner fell the trees and roughly trim the two opposite sides.
5. = LINESMAN 1.
1870. Daily News, 27 Sept. Such troops are less likely to commit excesses in a conquered town than regular liners.
II. Of things.
† 6. (See quot.) Obs.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xii. ¶ 7. The Liner is … a thin Plate of Iron or Brass … that being applied to the Face of a Punch, or other piece of Work, it may shew whether it be straight or no. Ibid., xvi. He examins by applying the Lyner … and holding it so up between his Eye and the Light, tries whether or not the Lyner ride upon the part that was extuberant.
7. (See quot.)
1886. Mrs. Sharp-Ayres, Mirror Painting, Introd. 4. Take a very fine brush, called a liner, dip it in the colour, and go over the traced outline of the water lily.
8. a. A vessel (now usually a steam-ship) belonging to a ‘line’ of packets (see LINE sb.2 22).
1838. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. II. v. All they got to do is, to up Hudson like a shot … and home in a liner, and write a book.
1848. Kingsley, Yeast, v. (1851), 96. The railroad, Cunard’s liners and the electric telegraph.
1885. Manch. Exam., 21 May, 4/7. If the bar was silted up 3 ft. it absolutely prohibited large Atlantic liners from entering Liverpool.
1897. R. Kipling, Captains Courageous, 1. The big liner rolled and lifted, whistling to warn the fishing fleet.
b. A line-of-battle ship.
1858. in Simmonds, Dict. Trade.
1859. G. A. Lawrence, Sword & Gown, xvii. 228. A huge ‘liner,’ with English colours at the main … close on the enemy’s quarter.
1861. Sat. Rev., 14 Dec., 602. There was … a fleet in commission of three liners and three or four frigates.
1863. Woolner, My Beautiful Lady, 147. The huge liners of the hostile fleet.
1864. Times, 17 Oct., 10/2. Wooden liners had become universally acknowledged as useless to compete with ironclad frigates.
9. A boat engaged in sea-fishing with lines.
1901. Scotsman, 4 March, 6/2. The want of herring bait is handicapping the steam liners who are working the cod and ling fishing.
10. Sports. (? U.S.) a. Baseball. A ball that, when struck, flies through the air in a nearly straight line not far from the ground.
1874. [see line-ball, LINE sb.2 32].
b. A ball, marble, or other object that rests on a traced line (Cent. Dict.).
11. colloq. A picture hung ‘on the line’ at an exhibition (see LINE sb.2 11 c).
1887. W. P. Frith, Autobiog., I. x. 114. The work … in due time made its appearance in Trafalgar Square, where it was amongst the fortunate ‘liners.’
12. ‘A threshed sheaf of corn’ (W. Cornwall Gloss., 1880).
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 110 b. As the threshing lout, Rusheth his Lyners out, So Lyner on his course rusheth.
