[f. TRAIN v.1 + -ER1.] One who or that which trains.
1. A person who (or thing that) educates or instructs; one who puts a person (or animal) through a course of training and exercise with a view to proficiency in something; an instructor; spec. † (a) one who trains or drills soldiers, a drill-sergeant (obs.); (b) one who trains persons or animals for some athletic performance, as a race; spec. one who trains race-horses. (Also with up.)
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, I. i. 6. The trayning of men … done … by such sufficient Trayners.
1659. H. More, Immort. Soul, III. xvii. § 5. 508. As the basest men are the trainers up of the best sort of Dogs.
1812. Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 99. Mr. Price trainer at Newmarket.
1861. Paley, Æschylus, Agam., 1599, note. Imprisonment and the pangs of hunger are first-rate trainers of the mind for teaching even old age.
1891. S. Mostyn, Curatica, 45. I took lessons in elocution…. I cannot leave this part of my story without pausing to do honour to my trainer.
b. A member of a trainband, esp. when assembled for ‘training’ or drill; a militiaman. (In later use U.S.)
1581–2. Churchw. Acc. E. Budleigh (ed. Brushfield), 19. Pd … for makinge clean of the Caliuers for the trayners, xvjd.
1846. Mrs. Kirkland, West. Clearings, 28. The gentler sex, partaking, by sympathy at least, in the excitement of the time … by unwearied running after the ‘trainers.’
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Trainers, the militia when assembled for exercise.
2. † a. One who draws or drags. Obs. b. A string used in describing a circle. rare–1.
1648–60. Hexham, Een Sleyper, a Trainer, or a Dragger. Een Sleyperesse, a Traineresse or a Draggeresse.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xxi. (1858), 459. There occurred on the … sand, around decaying tufts of the bent-grass, deeply-marked circles, as if drawn by a pair of compasses or a trainer.
3. A frame upon which plants are trained. rare–0.
1882. in Ogilvie (Annandale).
4. Comb., as trainer-like adj.
1836–48. B. D. Walsh, Aristoph., Knights, I. iii. That’s a good trainer-like remark.
Hence † Traineress [-ESS1]. Obs. rare–0.
1648–60. [see 2].
