sweater

Etymology

From Middle English swētere, equivalent to sweat +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈswɛtə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈswɛtɚ/, /-ɾɚ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈswetə/
• Rhymes: -ɛtə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: sweat‧er

Noun

sweater (plural sweaters)

1. A knitted jacket or jersey, usually of thick wool, worn by athletes before or after exercise.

   Synonym: sweatshirt

2. (US) A similar garment worn for warmth.

   Synonyms: jumper, pullover, jersey, cardigan, wooly

   • 1997, “Autumn Sweater”, in I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, performed by Yo La Tengo:

     We could slip away / Wouldn't that be better? / Me with nothing to say / And you in your autumn sweater

4. One who sweats (produces sweat).

   Synonym: perspirer

   • 2007, John T. James, A Sea of Broken Hearts: Patient Rights in a Dangerous Profit-Driven Health Care System, →ISBN, page 29:

     The cardiologist who administered Alex's exercise stress test on August 21 observed during that test that Alex was a profuse sweater.

5. One who or that which causes to sweat.
   • 1906, Chesterton, Charles Dickens, chapter 3:

     We learn of the cruelty of some school or child-factory from journalists; we learn it from inspectors, we learn it from doctors, we learn it even from shame-stricken schoolmasters and repentant sweaters; but we never learn it from the children; we never learn it from the victims.

6. A diaphoretic remedy.
7. (historical) An exploitative middleman who subcontracted piece work in the tailoring trade.

   Synonym: exploiter

   Coordinate term: sweatee

   • 1894, New York (State) Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration, Annual Report (volumes 7-8, page 158)

     If the piecework system had not existed there never would have been any sweatees. The men who are sweaters, I am sorry to say, are men who formerly belonged to our union.

8. (archaic) One who sweats coins, i.e. removes small portions by shaking them.
9. (UK, obsolete) A London street ruffian in Queen Anne's time who prodded passers-by with his sword-point.
   • William Lecky, quoted in 1965, Gilbert Geis, Juvenile Gangs (page 6)

     Among them were the "sweaters" who formed a circle round their prisoner and pricked him with their swords until he sank exhausted to the ground, […]

Verb

sweater (third-person singular simple present sweaters, present participle sweatering, simple past and past participle sweatered)

1. (transitive) To dress in a sweater.

Further reading

• sweater on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• wearest