Forms: 5 throwestre, -er, 6 throwstar, (7–8 throster), 7– throwster. [f. THROW v.1 6 b + -STER.]
1. One who twists silk fibers into raw silk or raw silk into thread, a silk-throwster; originally, a woman who did this, a SILK-WOMAN (the earliest term). † Also extended to a worsted-spinner (obs.).
1455. Rolls of Parlt., V. 325/1. The Silkewymmen and Throwestres of the Craftes and occupation of Silkewerk.
1530. Palsgr., 281/1. Throwstar, deuideresse de soye.
1620. Middleton & Rowley, World Tost at Tennis, 95. Job a venerable silk weaver, Jehu a throwster dwelling i’ the Spitalfields.
1678. Phillips (ed.), Throster, one that twisteth Silk or Thred.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5401/4. A Worsted-Throwster by Trade.
1734. Swift, Compl. Deafness, 16. A woman’s clack, if I have skill, Sounds somewhat like a throwster’s mill.
1846. McCullock, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 713. The throwsters of the metropolis were formed into a fellowship in 1562, but they were not incorporated till 1629.
1880. Charl. M. Mason, Forty Shires, 95. English throwsters did their work as well as those of Italy.
2. Pottery. = THROWER 1 b: see quot. (? error).
1894. H. Speight, Nidderdale, 384, note. Throwsters and drysters were potters’ craftsmen; the throwster being the man who works the wheel, and … forms by the pressure of his hand the ‘lining’ for the dish or cup.
† 3. A dice-thrower, a gamester. Obs. rare.
1832. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., in Blackw. Mag., Sept., 383. A certain bold throwster had swept the pool.
