Forms: 3–7 stremer(e, 4–5 stremour (6 Sc. stremowr), 6 streemer, stremar (Sc. streamar), streymer (straymer), 6– streamer. [f. STREAM v. + -ER1.]
1. A flag streaming or waving in the air; specif. a long and narrow pointed flag or pennon.
1292. in Champollion-Figeac, Lettres des Rois (1839), I. 397. Lesqueles banères sount appelés baucans, et la gent d’Engleterre les appelent stremeres.
1295. Acc. Exch. K. R., 5/8 m. 13 Et v.s. vj.d. in .j. Stremer empto de Hugone Kelinge Et xij.d. in .j. Phane empto ad Mast.
13[?]. Sir Beues, 3042. Vpon þe hiȝeste mast is top þere He let sette vp a stremere Of his fader armure.
a. 1400. Isumbras, 224. Those schippes sawe thay ryde With toppe castelles sett one lofte,… Stremours fro thame ferre gane glyde.
1500. Inv. Ch. Goods Canterb., in Gentl. Mag. (1837), Dec., 571/2. j stremer, of rede bokeram, wt a dragon of Saynt George therin, and a rode baner staff ’longyng thereto.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VII., 53 b. Barges garnished with standardes, stremers and penons.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. i. Ant. Where stands my fathers hearse? 2nd Pa. Those streamers beare his armes.
1631. Weever, Anc. Funeral Mon., 596. A little Streamer worne on the top of a lawnce by a Horseman.
1671. Milton, Samson, 718. Like a stately Ship … With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Sails fill’d, and streamers waving.
1704. Prior, Lett. to M. Boileau Despreaux, 74. What Poet would essay To count the Streamers of my Lord Mayor’s Day?
1721. Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. I. xxxii. (271). Whose Streamers and Cognizances hang still up in the said Church.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 255. Now hoist the sail, and let the streamers float Upon the wanton breezes.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xlviii. He shall carry … the gayest silken streamer in this valiant army.
fig. 1648. Herrick, Hesper., Mrs. Eliz. Wheeler, Lost Shepardesse, 12. In yond’ Carnation goe and seek, There thou shalt find her lip and cheek:… In bloome of Peach, and Roses bud, There waves the Streamer of her blood.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 330. Your self-denying zeal, that holds it good … to hang His thorns with streamers of continual praise.
1860. Hawthorne, Transform., xlviii. [To him] the Corso was but a narrow and shabby street of decaying palaces; and even the long, blue streamer of Italian sky, above it, not half so brightly blue as formerly.
2. transf. a. gen. Something long and narrow, that hangs loose in the manner of a streamer.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xi. The brier-rose fell in streamers green.
1853. Mrs. Gore, Dean’s Dau., xxxvii. III. 183. ‘My maid pointed out to me … this morning half-a-dozen grey hairs in these miserable streamers,’ replied Lady Emily, passing her hand lightly through the long, fair ringlets.
1889. Repentance P. Wentworth, III. 228. Tying up a bouquet … with long streamers of pale yellow ribbon.
1903. [Miss E. Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 286. I have seen long streamers of dark pink roses swinging over the Red Sandstone walls of Melrose.
† b. Some kind of decoration for pastry. Obs.
1710–1. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 6 Jan. Great cakes frothed with sugar, and stuck with streamers of tinsel.
1717. Prior, Alma, I. 388. He must be an idle dreamer, Who leaves the pie, and gnaws the streamer.
c. A long flowing ribbon, feather, etc., attached to some article of dress.
1838. W. C. Harris, Narr. Exped. S. Africa, xii. 106. A collection of skin streamers like the tails of a lady’s boa attached to a thin waistcord, being the nearest approach to an habiliment amongst them.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxxi. The obliging care of his martial friend had decorated his hat with sundry parti-coloured streamers.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xx. A lady’s head-dress—a most airy sort of blue and silver turban, with a streamer of plumage on one side.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, xxviii. Her own battered, blowsy old chapeau, with its limp streamers.
d. A long exserted feather streaming away from the rest of the plumage of certain birds.
[Cf. 1869–73 in sense 7.]
1879. A. Newton, in Encycl. Brit., X. 712/1. In this [species] the remigial streamers do not lose their barbs.
1899. A. H. Evans, Birds, 548. The extraordinary Pteridophora alberti possesses a wonderful streamer behind each eye, twice as long as the body.
e. A long narrow strip of vapor, snow, etc.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), viii. 176. Fragments of vapour … clustered in long streamers upon the mountain sides.
1874. Symonds, Sk. Italy & Greece (1898), I. i. 27. Streamers of snow may be seen flying from the higher ridges.
1895. R. W. Chambers, King in Yellow (1902), 218. Long streamers of clouds touched with rose swept low on the western sky.
3. † a. A luminous heavenly body emitting a continuous stream of light. Obs.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 21. The twinkling stremowris of the orient Sched purpour sprangis with gold and asure ment, Persand the sabill barmkyn nocturnall.
1594. Nashe, Terrors of Night, Wks. 1904, I. 354. Sundry times wee behold whole Armies of men skirmishing in the Ayre, Dragons, wilde beasts, bloody streamers, blasing Comets, firie strakes, with other apparitions innumerable.
1647. J. Hall, Poems, 71. O who so stupid that would not Resolve to Atoms, for to play ’Mong th’ golden streamers he shall shut, While he prolongs one endlesse day?
† b. The tail of a comet. Obs.
1621. Quarles, Esther, Introd. B 4 b. With mighty streamers came these blazing starres, Portending Warres.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 39. It was not by far so bright, nor its streamer shining as this hath appeared.
1710. N. Blundell, Diary (1895), 85. My Wife and I saw ye Strange Starr … the Streamer of it seemed to be fully four yards long.
c. A ray proceeding from the sun; esp. pl., the radiation of the sun’s corona seen in eclipses.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, VII. 35. When the rosie Morn began to rise, And wav’d her Saffron Streamer thro’ the Skies.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 108. 2/2. Your Rayes so extensive, And Lust’ring Streamers.
1878. Proctor, Myst. Time & Space (1883), 110. The Sun’s long streamers. Ibid., 119. The theory that such meteor systems may explain coronal streamers seen during total eclipses of the sun.
d. pl. The Aurora Borealis; rarely sing. (poet.), one of the darting rays or flashes forming this phenomenon. Cf. STREAMING vbl. sb. b.
1735. Byrom, Rem. (1855), I. II. 519. Mr. C. had a coach, in which I rode to Gray’s Inn; there were streamers in the air very remarkable.
a. 1774. Goldsm., Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776), I. 64. The Aurora Borealis … which the vulgar call streamers.
1775. L. Shaw, Hist. Moray, III. 148. In the Winter Nights, the Aurora Borealis (from its desultory motion, called Merry-dancers and Streamers) affords no small light.
1801. J. Leyden, Elfin-King, xxx. When high over head fall the streamers red.
1842. Tennyson, Morte d’Arth., 139. The great brand … flashing round and round, and whirl’d in an arch, Shot like a streamer of the northern morn.
a. 1861. A. Clough, Mari Magno, v. 329. While the arctic streamers bright Rolled from the clouds in waves of airy light.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, viii. 250. His splendour is like that of northern streamers in its lambency.
e. A streaming jet or tongue of flame.
1758. Reid, trans. Macquer’s Chem., I. 265. From time to time this streamer darts out to the length of seven or eight inches, snapping and emitting sparks of fire.
† 4. A rider or supplementary addition to a document. Obs.
1696. S. Sewall, Diary, 2 Dec. (1878), I. 439. Capt. Byfield brings in a long Bill from the deputys for a Fast and Reformation, written by Mr. Cotton Mather, to which a Streamer was added expressing that Partiality in Courts of Justice was obvious.
5. The geometrid moth Anticlea derivata.
1775. M. Harris, Eng. Lepidoptera, 45. Streamer…. White moth, having a bar of brown near the thorax and another waving like a narrow flag near the tip.
1832. J. Rennie, Butterfl. & Moths, 123. The Streamer (Anticlea derivata).
1869. E. Newman, Brit. Moths, 166.
6. Mining. One who washes detrital deposits to procure the ore they contain.
1619. in W. Macfarlane, Geogr. Collect. (S.H.S.), III. 34. John Gibson … who … now is a Washer or streamer for Gold.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornw., 214. A streamer there, found native gold immersed in the body of a blue sandy slat.
1769. Phil. Trans., LIX. 49. Some streamers … brought in a parcel of tin ore.
1865. Esquiros, Cornwall, 41. Streamers, that is to say, men who obtain tin by washing the deposits found by the disaggregation of the primitive rocks.
7. attrib. and Comb.
1534. in Sharp, Cov. Myst. (1825), 196. P’d to þe stremerberers xvjd.
1869–73. T. R. Jones, Cassell’s Bk. Birds, II. 131. The Streamer-bearing Night Jar … (Cosmetornis vexillarius).
1871. Nesbitt, Catal. Slade Coll. Glass, 75. Green and red streamer points.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 688/1. Drawn out to streamer-like dimensions.
1899. Meredith, Poems, Night-walk, 3. Awakes for me and leaps from shroud All radiantly the moon’s own night Of folded showers in streamer cloud.
