[f. SPLASH v.1]
1. a. A guard placed over or beside a wheel to prevent splashing or accidental contact.
1848. Q. Rev., Dec., 50. Cylinders, connecting-rods, splashers, leading and trailing wheels, &c.,… of which a locomotive engine is composed.
1875. in Knight, Dict. Mech., 2279.
b. A splash-board.
1887. United Service Gaz., 25 June. A semi-state landau, with … splasher in front, in place of the Salisbury boot or hammer cloth.
2. A flat board strapped to the foot for walking on soft ground or mud.
1859. H. C. Folkard, Wild-Fowler, 99. Immediately after the gun was fired, the fowler or his assistant had to put on splashers and proceed over the ooze.
1887. Baring-Gould, in Chambers’s Jrnl., IV. 2/1. Boys and girls … went out on them with ‘splashers’ on their feet to gather shellfish.
