[f. TROT v. + -ER1; cf. med.L. trotārius (Du Cange), OF. trotier (Godef.).]
1. A horse (or other quadruped) which trots; spec. a horse especially bred and trained to the trot.
1381–2. [see 6].
1391–2. Earl Derby’s Exped. (Camden), 143. Pro duobus equis trotters cum duabus sellis per ipsum emptis.
1452. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), III. 137. j equi basii, trotter, xs.
1592. Greene, Maiden’s Dream, Wks. (Rtldg.), 279/1. His stable full of coursers…, Trotters whose manag’d looks would some affright.
1679. Lond. Gaz., No. 1412/4. A black brown Gelding about 15 hands,… a Trotter only.
1776. Pennsylv. Even. Post, 26 March, 154/2. A Dark Brown Coloured Horse … a natural trotter.
1812. Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 31. A trotter constantly habituated to that pace.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., ii. Compare the racer with the trotter.
1890. W. P. Lett, in Big Game N. Amer., 88. The Caribou is the champion trotter of America.
1898. Doyle, Trag. Korosko, v. 110. Most of them [camels] were beautiful creatures, true Arabian trotters.
b. A trotting-cart, a sulky.
1902. Times, 4 April, 9/6. He would come up in the morning in his ‘trotter.’
2. One who moves or goes about briskly and constantly; see TROT v. 2.
spec. (Univ. slang) a tailor’s assistant who goes round for orders; also, a tailor’s, dressmaker’s, or milliner’s girl messenger; at Dublin University, one who goes to Dublin for a degree, without residence (cf. term-trotter, at Oxford: see TERM sb. 17); at Durham University, a day-student (cf. TROT v. 2).
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 740. Neede makth tholde wyfe trot: is she a trotter now?
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Gaste-pavé, a trotter vpon the pauements, a walker by the streets.
1605. Tryall Chev., II. i., in Bullen, O. Pl., III. 288. And this trotter is my ryval and loves Thomasin.
1765. Foote, Commissary, I. Wks. 1799, II. 17. That eternal trotter after all the little draggle-tail’d girls of town.
1860. Slang Dict., Trotter, a tailor’s man who goes round for orders. University.
1883. Durham Univ. Jrnl., 17 Dec., 141. We suspect that the ingenious inventor of the name ‘trotter’ was well aware that the name had a ridiculous sound.
1897. Daily News, 23 Feb., 3/1. She was a Trotter … she trotted to and fro between the East and the West, with patterns to match—silks, stuffs, and so on.
3. Usually pl. The feet of a quadruped, esp. those of sheep and pigs as used for food; also humorously, the feet of a human being.
(Quot. c. 1358 doubtfully belongs here.)
[c. 1358. in Eng. Hist. Rev., Oct. (1909), 742. Item in duro pisce frisc. vd 0. Item in trotters viijd.]
1522. Skelton, Why not to Court, 908. The chefe of your fayre Myght stand nowe by potters, And suche as sell trotters.
c. 1550. Lacy, Wyl Buck’s Test. (Halliw.), 58. For to make the Trotters of the Bucke. Take the foure fete, and skalde them [etc.] … and that ben the trotters.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, I. 24. Not the dammes Foale, but the dames Trotters, be trusted vnto.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 174. He steales the sheepe; and gives the Trotters for Gods sake.
a. 1650. Anc. Poems, etc. (Percy Soc.), 164. Two calves’ feet, and a bull’s trotter.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. Pref. Finding out that some bald pated drone of a monk laid up his useless trotters in the corner of his Abbey, about 500 years ago.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 309. They will fasten the paws and trotters of panthers, bears, and buffalos, to their feet and hands.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 158/2. For supper there is a sandwich, a meat pudding, or a ‘trotter.’
1872. Mary Jewry, Every-day Cookery, 72/2. Perfectly cleanse and blanch the trotters.
4. See quot.
1864. Daily Tel., 18 May. ‘The … trotters’—fishermen who … trot for whelks to sell as bait to the North Sea cod-smacks.
5. One who trots another out in conversation: see TROT v. 4 c.
1818–9. [see TROTTEE].
6. attrib. and Comb., as trotter-bone, -girl (see sense 2), † -saddle, -stall; trottor-boilor, one whose business is to treat the hoofs of animals by boiling; trotter-cases, sb. pl. boots or shoes (slang); trotter-pie: see quot.; trotter skirt (see also TROTTEUR), a short, neat walking skirt.
1883. R. Haldane, Workshop Receipts, Ser. II. 301/1. Some [glue-making materials] that come from the *trotter-boilers … have been limed already.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, II. 407. Take *trotter bones; calcine and beat them to a fine powder, wherewith rub the spots on both sides.
1869. Daily News, 23 Aug. The original floor … was laid with ‘trotter bones,’… closely packed and driven into the ground to the depth of from three to four inches.
1821. Hood, Sent. Journ., Wks. 1862, I. 34. A young gentleman in very tight *trotter-cases,… his feet gave evident signs of suffering.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xviii. ‘Japanning his trotter-cases’ … rendered into plain English signifieth, cleaning his boots.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 10 Aug., 10/1. The streets of Soho are unusually quiet; the *trotter girl, with her bundle of coats or trousers, is almost a curiosity.
a. 1693. Urquhart’s Rabelais, III. xviii. 151. We were … eating a Bushel of *Trotter-pies [orig. goudiveaulx (see Cotgr.)].
1381–2. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 592. Pro reparacione j *trottersadill.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 15 Feb., 5/3. A … gown … for roller skating or merely for walking [with] a *trotter skirt.
1595. Enq. Tripe-wife (1881), 148. Since I trotted from my *trotter stall, And figd about from neates feete neatly drest: I finde no pleasure nor content at all.
Hence Trotteress (nonce-wd.), a female trotter (in globe-trotteress: cf. globe-trotter s.v. GLOBE sb. 10 b).
1892. Marianne North, Recoll. Happy Life (ed. 2), II. 213. Lady A. joined our three pairs of hands and blessed us—‘three globe trotteresses all at once!’
