Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 4 tonour, 5 -owre, tunnowre, 6 tuner, 6– tunner. [f. TUN sb. or v. + -ER1.]
1. An instrument for tunning liquor; a funnel.
1337. in Riley Memorials (1868), 200. [One iron spit, 3d.; one frying-pan, 2d. one] tonour, 1d.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 496/2. Tonowre, or fonel, infusorium. Ibid., Tunnowre, idem quod tonowre.
1552–3. in Midl. Counties Hist. Coll., I. 233. A cherne a tuner a hopp iij kytts.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Tunner, a wooden funnel. ‘Urn down, Jack, to farm’ Perry’s and borry he’s tunner.
† 2. One who tuns liquor. Obs.
1598. Stow, Surv., 192. The successors of those Vintners … were all incorporated by the name of wine tunners.
So Tunnery, a place in which liquor is tunned.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 444. The tunnery, fishery, and salt produce a good revenue.
1869. W. Molyneux, Burton-on-Trent, 250. [The cask is] thence transmitted to the ‘tunnery’ to be refilled.
