webber

From Middle English webbere, webber; equivalent to web +‎ -er.

webber (plural webbers)

1. An animal that creates webs, such as a spider.
   • 1960, Florists Exchange and Horticultural Trade World, page 14:

     Mites of this sort are prolific webbers […]

   • 1987, CD Moulton, Heku:

     The eightleg webbers caused that fear in him.

   • 2000, Peter Loewer, The Wild Gardener: On Flowers and Foliage for the Natural Border, page 130:

     Some webbers are drab, colorless, and small, preferring to spin their webs in dark cellars.

   • 2001, Gavin Thorpe, Inquisitor, page 91:

     Web solvent is used to disintegrate the sticky, constricting mass fired by webbers.

   • 2007, P. C. Jain, M. C. Bhargava, Entomology: Novel Approaches, page 466:

     Weak webbers like P. ulmi and P. citri, under harsh situations tend to colonize along and remain close to the midribs and veins.

2. A person who weaves webs, especially one who manufactures webbing.
   • 1880, Great Britain. Foreign Office, Reports by Her Majesty's Secretaries of Embassy and Legation on the Manufatures, commerce, &c., of the Countries in which they reside, page 150:

     On the other hand, the Wurtemberg calico manufacturers succeeded in doing a profitable business, and a similar good report may be given as respects machine weavers in colours, wick makers, webbers ( i.e., girth makers, &c.) and staymakers, at all events for the latter half of the year.

   • 1881, James Fawckner Nicholls, John Taylor, Bristol Past and Present: Civil history, page 169:

     The men employed in the cloth trade were weavers, webbers, tuckers, walkers (who thickened the cloth by walking and stamping upon it), fullers, millmen, shearmen, carders, and sorters of wool, spinners and spullars of yarn, &c.

   • 1907 January 9, “Suspenders and Belts”, in Men's wear, volume 22, number 5, page 67:

     Such questionable tactics, however, were in some instances followed by webbers who, when a bonus could be secured, sold to other parties goods that were already contracted for.

   • 1967, FTC News Summary, page 9:

     The complaint further charges that "Respondent Allied, respondent Robbins, and Robbins' predecessor in interest, J.R. Co., have carried out a program of acquisition and expansion, the cumulative effect of which is, and has been, to lessen, restrain, and eliminate competition in the manufacture and sale, in the United States, of seat belts to automobile manufactureres, webbing to seat belt manufacturers, and yarn to webbers."

   • 2015, Arlene Hill, Rose-Colored Glasses, page 245:

     We will be the champion string webbers.

3. One who applies webbing.
   • 1957, United States. National Labor Relations Board, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, page 1226:

     From there the assembled backs and fronts went to the webbers, who put on the webbing.

   • 1913, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, page 311:

     Job simplification has resulted in less skilled workers taking over parts of the job, i.e. webbers to tack the webbing and spring setters to install the springs.

   • 1944, Occupational Briefs on America's Major Job Fields, page 59:

     Coil spring setters install springs after webbers have tacked the webbing on which the springs rest.

4. Any of various devices that emit string in the production of a web or webbing.
   • 1900, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights, page 1475:

     A knitting machine, provided with two needle beds coacting, each having a combway for the reception of the same set of webbers, the combways of the first bed provided at their bottoms in the base of the bed with slideway seatings […]

   • 1936, Canadian Textile Journal - Volume 53, page 35:

     The few plain webbers on show seemed to be designed primarily for speed and at least one of them was demonstrating how fabric for meat bags should be made.

   • 1990, Jarmila Švédová, Industrial Textiles, page 97:

     Random webs are preferably produced by the air-dynamic method on pneumatic webbers.

   • 2002, P.K. Chatterjee, B.S. Gupta, Absorbent Technology, page 136:

     Most webbers utilize pneumatic transport and deposition of short fibers to form webs.

   • 2016, G. W. S. Brewer, Educational School Gardening and Handwork, page 106:

     A webber for putting cotton over fruit bushes is shown.

5. (informal) A creature with webbed feet.
   • 1878, Norman Allison Calkins, Abby Morton Diaz, Swimming Birds, page 2:

     All the Swimmers are webbers.

6. (informal) A member of a food web.
   • 2020, Leslie Bulion, Leaf Litter Critters:

     Many brown food webbers eat a mixture of foods—including each other!

   • 2023, Leslie Bulion, Galápagos: Islands of Change:

     Marine food webbers gobble their fill.

7. (dated) Someone who uses the internet; a visitor of websites.
   • 1996, National Association of Science Writers, Newsletter - Volumes 44-45, page 22:

     Similar to ScienceNOW 's readers, The Why Files audience seems to range from technoliterate scientists killing time on the job to first-time webbers.

   • 1996, Aaron E. Walsh, Foundations of Java Programming for the World Wide Web, page 206:

     So, even if you use JPEG images, their beauty will be lost on webbers having Windows systems, until the JDK is updated.

   • 1997, What the Small Office Practitioner Must Know about Legal Resources and Client Development on the Internet, page 72:

     Netscape is the web browser used by an estimated 70% of the US isp webbers, and can be enabled to read Java.

   • 2009, Gerald Jackson, Marie Lenstrup, Getting Published, page 259:

     There is a world of creative, opinionated and generous 'webbers' just waiting for you to click 'connect'.

8. One who works on the creation or publishing of websites.
   • 1995, Stuart H. Harris, Gayle Kidder, Netscape Quick Tour for Macintosh, page 90:

     Perhaps you're still just enjoying exploring, or maybe you've found your own little niche of favorite sites run by like-minded Webbers.

   • 2001, John D. Haynes, Internet Management Issues, page 216:

     Figure 2 represents a possible future scenario, where the webber-analyst grabs and glues bits of model that might be deemed sufficiently appropriate.

   • 2015, Tonya Terry, Excellent Webbers: Website Making Has Never Been So Easy:

     (see title)

webber

1. Alternative form of webbere