[f. as prec. + -ER1.]
1. One who gives heed or attention; an observer.
1660–3. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 287. Crazy brains … are not seldom the most curious attenders of such things as these.
1876. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma, 49. Attending to conduct … makes the attender feel that it is joy to do it.
2. He who (or that which) attends or waits upon, esp. to render service; a ministrant, attendant.
1461–83. Ord. R. Househ., 83. One page … to be labourer and attender.
1594. Daniel, Cleop. (1717), 290. Go my Maids, my Fortune’s sole Attenders.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. 1653, 342. The attenders of the sick.
1635. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1869), 117. On whose lookes, words, and actions, Modesty is a dilligent attender.
1681. Glanvill, Sadducismus, I. (1726), 40. These mischievous spirits … are more constant Attenders … upon the Actions and Inclinations of such, whose Genius and Designs prepare them for their Temptations.
3. = ATTENDANT sb. 4.
1704. J. Blair, in Perry, Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch., I. 96. I was a constant attender at Councils.
1882. W. McQueen, in Macm. Mag., XLVI. 164/2. Tobacco and pipes are not provided by the relatives of the deceased, each attender bringing his own supply of these luxuries.
