picker-upperer

English

Etymology

From pick up with the application of three -er suffixes. Compare cleaner-upperer and doer-upperer.

Noun

picker-upperer (plural picker-upperers)

1. (rare) One who, or that which, picks up (something).
   • 1956 December 8, Horace Sutton, “Booked for Travel: American Plan”, in Saturday Review, volume XXXIX, number 49, New York, N.Y.: Saturday Review, Inc., page 48, column 3:

     There is a hotel with a valet which hires a clothes picker-upperer name of Jasper. While Jasper is out picking up or delivering, a call comes in from a room near where he is going.

   • 1996 September 24, Anne Glover, “Inventions both daffy and deft”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, number 49,629, page 8c:

     After the arrival of these new programs, who knows what the kids will be inventing in next year’s competition. It’s likely to be much more elaborate than Joshua’s dirty sock picker-upper-er, that’s for sure!

   • 1999 May 17, Greg Shield, “Manure - What to do with it....”, in alt.horsecare.basics (Usenet):

     I'm going to buy a tractor/lawn mower and design a picker-upperer, can't be that hard can it....

   • 1999 June 2, Greg Shield, “ROUND PEN TRAINING”, in alt.animals.horses.breeding (Usenet):

     Finally, got a ride-on mower (25hp-it'll probably knock down trees, now to design a poo picker upperer).

   • 1999 September 14, Fore Right!!!, “I FINALLY have a beef with Tiger Woods”, in rec.sport.golf (Usenet):

     >There are at least 3 good reasons for flipping the ball.
     but the real reason everybody does it is so you dont have to bend over to pick up your practice balls. as a youngster learning the game it was a big no no to use one of those girly ball picker upperer things.

   • 2000 February 8, wl, “Wow, this is a Classy NG/Lisa Nicole :)”, in alt.tv.ally-mcbeal (Usenet):

     sorry, that's my fault. a while ago, i spilled some red wine and had to use the goat beard as the quicker-picker upperer because it was the only thing handy.

   • 2000 May 2, Caraguys, “(VAN) Sydney show”, in aus.general (Usenet):

     My classic was a lint-picker-upperer. We had a show stand opposite one of these people.

   • 2000 July 18, Carol Schwaderer Dickinson, quoting OzGirl Down Under, “Social security disability”, in alt.support.diabetes (Usenet):

     > […] I was a
     > bit peeved that out of all the gadgets I took home, there
     > wasn't a pickled onion picker upperer.

   • 2000 December 10, Jay, “Dudly Moore”, in nz.general (Usenet):

     I didn't realise the scraggly dude with the cart had such a posh title as "Mortician" / I bet he didn't get more than a ha'penny for being the towns chief body pickerupperer

   • 2005 January 28, The Rifleman, “BNP Whingers on uk.politics.misc”, in uk.politics.misc (Usenet):

     Who would reckon a shit picker upperer would threaten me:o),

   • 2005 February 4, rdj...@hotmail.com, “Storm photos”, in melb.general (Usenet):

     have you still got a satellite thingy picker upperer (i believe that's the technical name) on your roof to pull these images down from ?

   • 2005 March 12, Ken Anderson, “Pellet Hops”, in rec.crafts.brewing (Usenet):

     Another chance to show off my handy-dandy keg mover/picker-upperer.

   • 2009, Gary William Murning, If I Never, Legend Press, →ISBN, page 120:

     Dad was concerned that you might distract me from my career as a litter picker-upperer, while Mam believed you’d be the incentive I’ve needed all along.

   • 2011 September 24, Lisa Cubbon, “Cubbon's Special Family Vacation Part 3”, in rec.arts.disney.parks (Usenet):

     He did like the picker upperers that look like Mickey's hand and he manged to snag a pen with tinkerbell on the top with it.

   • 2013, Mark Pardoe, The Andy Flegg Survival Guide, Puffin Books, →ISBN:

     In fact I hate writing so much that if you gave me a choice right now between writing in this journal or picking up dog poo, then I would definitely be a full-time poo picker-upperer […]

   • 2017, James May, The Reassembler, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 63:

     I don’t actually know what one of these is officially called. It’s a flexible thingy with a magnet on one end, for retrieving things from inaccessible places. It ends up being referred to as the ‘magnetic picker upperer’.

   • 2019 September 18, Mikaela Wilkes, “This pet hair hack will leave your carpets cleaner than ever”, in Stuff‎^[1], archived from the original on 1 October 2019:

     You can do this manually on your hands and knees, or for advanced players - attach an old mop handle to the top of any regular squeegee and you've DIY'd your own super effective pet hair picker-upperer.

   • 2020 January 11, Lorraine Gierck, “Hashing - 2020 Winery Bike Hash Weekend 20-22 March”, in Google Groups (The MOB)‎^[2], archived from the original on 18 August 2023:

     So there's a job for everybody - whether it's as a rider with a thirst, or a picker-upperer lending a hand.

   • 2022 September 30, “Scottish Canals Uses Digital Twin to Regulate Canal’s Water-Storage Capacity”, in Redshift‎^[3], Autodesk, archived from the original on 19 October 2022:

     Mitchell: As a volunteer at the Claypits, we do litter picking, which is more of a walk sometimes because we’re very enthusiastic picker-upperers.

   • 2022 December 7, Loz Blain, “Impossible Metals demonstrates its super-careful seabed mining robot”, in New Atlas‎^[4], Gizmag Pty Ltd, archived from the original on 8 December 2022:

     This North American company has developed a robotic picker-upperer that floats along near the sea bed without actually rolling on it, searching for the right kinds of nodules with camera vision, using AI to determine which ones have signs of visible life on board, leaving those alone and carefully yoinking the rest off the surface with little claw grabbers.

   • 2023 August 11, Terry Durack, “The setting point: Restaurant cutlery is better now, but not necessarily simpler”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎^[5], archived from the original on 11 August 2023:

     Another cutlery-related issue has to do with share plates, each one coming with a pair of what I can only call clackers: metal tongs with a scissor handle at one end and clumsy, spoon-shaped picker-upperers at the other.