shaper

English

Etymology

From Middle English shapper, shapere, schapare, scaper, scheppere, schuppere, alteration (perhaps due to Old Norse skaperi, skapari) of Old English sċyppend, sċieppend (“shaper; maker; creator”), equivalent to shape +‎ -er. Cognate with Dutch schepper, German Schöpfer, Danish skaber, Swedish skapare, Icelandic skapari.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɪpə(ɹ)/ enPR: shāʹpər

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  Rhymes: -eɪpə(ɹ)

Noun

shaper (plural shapers)

1. One who shapes.

   the shaper of one's fortunes

   • 1876, James Russell Lowell, “Dante”, in Among My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 98:

     Considered merely as works of art, these products of the Greek imagination [i.e., Greek tragedies] satisfy our highest conception of form. […] The secret of those old shapers died with them; their wand is broken, their book sunk deeper than ever plummet sounded.

2. A machine tool in which a single-point cutting tool mounted on a reciprocating ram is traversed across the workpiece linearly. Shapers can generate various shapes, but were most especially employed in generating flat surfaces and keyways. The shaper is nowadays obsolescent, most of its applications being served by milling machines.
3. (surfing) A person who designs and builds surfboards.

Coordinate terms

(machine tool):

• slotter
• see others at machine tool § Hyponyms

Derived terms

• partial shaper

 

Related terms

• glasser

Translations

A machine tool

• Czech: obrážečka f
• Dutch: schaafbank (nl) c
• French : étau-limeur (fr) m
• German: Stoßmaschine f
• Italian: limatrice (it) f
• Polish: strugarka (pl) f
• Spanish: limadora (es) f
• Swedish: kipphyvel, bordsfräs (sv) c

Anagrams

• E sharp, E-sharp, Harpes, Sharpe, Sherpa, Spehar, e sharp, e-sharp, harpes, hepars, pasher, phares, phaser, phrase, raphes, seraph, sharpe, sherpa, shrape, sphear