sewster

English

Alternative forms

• shooster (Scotland)

Etymology

From Middle English sewstare, sowstare, sewestre, sowestre, equivalent to sew +‎ -ster. Compare seamster, spinster.

Noun

sewster (plural sewsters)

1. (archaic or dialectal) A seamstress; a sewer (someone who sews).
   • 1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd:

     At every twisted thrid my rock let fly Unto the sewster

   • 1816, The Gentleman's magazine, volume 120, London, England, page 231:

     This Letter mentions that portraits of Cromwell, Lockhart, and Mr. Sewster, were then in the possession of Mr. Gosling, of Wistow, near Ramsey, in Huntingdonshire, whose Grandfather married a Sewster.

   • 2004, Peter Lake, Moderate Puritans And The Elizabethan Church:

     […] and not of men only but of women and the same not only learned but labouring men, sewsters, servants, and handmaids.

   • 2010, Gary Taylor, John Lavagnino, MacDonald P. Jackson, Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works - Page 316:

     Bound with strong cord! A sewster's thread, i'faith, had been enough [...]

References

• “sewster”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Westers, stewers, westers