Obs. Also travat, trivet, trevette (Cent. Dict., 1891). [Derivation unascertained.] An instrument with a sharp blade formerly used for cutting the loops which form the pile of velvet, Wilton carpets, etc., when hand-woven.
1831. G. R. Porter, Silk Manuf., 279. Running a sharp instrument called a trevat along the groove of the wire.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., vi. 203. A cutting instrument called a trevat … severing the pile-threads.
1864. Q. Rev., July, 31. These rows of loops are afterwards cut through by an instrument now called a ‘trevat,’ and thus the peculiar surface of velvet is given.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Trivet.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 467/1. Along this groove a cutting knife called a trivet is run to cut the loops.
1914. (Apr. 21) Lett. fr. Tomkinson & Adam, Kidderminster. The word, as we understand it here, is spelt ‘Travat,’ and [the specimen] is so labeled in the Museum; but the knife has been out of use so many years that only men who are 80 years of age or thereabouts remember anything of it.
