[f. TITHE v.2 + -ER1.] One who tithes. a. One who pays tithes; usually with qualification, as false, small, true tither. Now rare.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Friar’s T., 14. And smale tytheres [v.r. tithers] weren foule yshent.
c. 1400. York Man. (Surtees), 223. Ye shule pray specially for trew tythers and devout offerers.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 44. Whann þe euyll tythere seeth or heryth þat þou trewely tythest to god, it greuyth him sore.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 25. Yet we doe see ill tithers ill thriuers most commonlie bee.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., III. 377. Such distinguishing Titles, as the Punctual Tither, the Constant Faster.
b. An exactor or receiver of tithes; also, a supporter of the system of ecclesiastical tithes.
1591. Florio, 2nd Fruites, 83. You are … not onely Parson or tither, but absolute possessor of whatsoeuer I haue.
1653. Milton, Hirelings, Wks. 1851, V. 376. Tithers themselves have contributed to thir own confutation, by confessing that the Church liv’d primitively on Alms.
1736. Bailey (folio), Tither, a tithe-gatherer.
1884. J. Payne, Tales fr. Arabic, I. 273. A certain tither, who exceeded all his brethren in oppression of the people and foulness of dealing.
