Also 4 spendour, 5 -are. [f. SPEND v.1 + -ER1. Cf. MDu. spender, OHG. spentâri, -eri (MHG. spendære, -iere, G. spender).]
1. One who spends; spec. one who spends lavishly or wastefully, a spendthrift.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VI. 28. An ydel man þow semest, A spendour þat spende mot oþer a spille-tyme.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xvi. (Bodl. MS.). He is a greete spender of his lordes good and catel.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 468/2. Spendare in waast, prodigus.
c. 1450. Myrr. our Ladye, 114. Ye saye that she ys a prudente and a ware spender and dysposer of goodes.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 62. Ye are calde … to great a spender.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 42. They would let so vnprofitable a spender starue.
1620. T. Granger, Div. Logike, 200. Of Spenders there are two sorts, some are Prodigall, some Liberall.
1670. Moral State Eng., 90. She is commonly a most extravagant spender.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 118. An industrious … man … is richer in my eye than a spender with thousands.
1844. Emerson, Lect., Young Amer., Wks. (Bohn), II. 302. Money is of no value, it cannot spend itself. All depends on the skill of the spender.
1883. American, VI. 217. Very rich men in England are much freer spenders than they are here.
prov. 1596. Bell, Surv. Popery, I. II. iv. 84. After great getters come great spenders.
1611. Cotgr., Mal soupe qui tout disne, of a young spender comes an old beggar.
1629. Gaule, Holy Madnesse, 437–8. After a great Getter, there commonly comes a Spender.
1635. J. Gore, Way to Well-doing, 25. A good sparer makes a good spender.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœmiologia, 262. Great spenders are bad lenders.
transf. 1611. Chapman, Widdowes T., Wks. 1873, III. 7. My former suites have been all spenders, this shall be my speeder.
1656. Davenant, Siege Rhodes, 1st Entry, They Stewards are, Without accompt, to that wild Spender, War.
2. One who, or that which, consumes, employs, or uses up; a consumer or waster of something.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Consumptor, a spender, consumer, or waster.
1600. Sir W. Cornwallis, Essays, xviii. L j b. I will put away this sleepy Humour, for it is an extreame spender.
1675. Hannah Woolley, Gentlew. Comp., 85. Queen Elizabeth … was pleased to term Plays the harmless Spenders of time.
1704. Swift, Mech. Operat. Spir., in Tale Tub, 296. To prevent Perspiration, than which nothing is observed to be a greater Spender of Mechanick Light.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Spender,… a consumer. A ‘small spender’ is a person who has very little appetite.
3. Tanning. A pit in which the bark is leached. Also attrib. in spender pit.
1882. Encycl. Brit., XIV. 382/2. The method of leaching commonly adopted in the United Kingdom is to pass the bark through a series of leachers or spender pits.
1897. C. T. Davis, Manuf. Leather, iv. (ed. 2), 61. When the material in No. 1 is spent, it is cast and filled with fresh bark, and becomes the best leach,… No. 2 becoming the spender.
