fletcher

Inherited from Middle English fleccher, from Old French flechier; equivalent to fletch +‎ -er.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈflɛt͡ʃ.ə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɛt͡ʃə(ɹ)

fletcher (plural fletchers)

1. One who fletches or feathers arrows.
   • 1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC, book 2, page 148:

     This thing, if a man take not hede on, he may chaunce have cauſe to ſay ſo of his fletcher, as in dreſſinge of meate is commonlye ſayde of cookes: and that is, that God ſendeth us good feathers, but the devill noughtye fletchers.

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 38:

     In order that distant countries should be furnished with bowyers, fletchers, and arrow head makers, any of those workmen, not being freemen of London, might be sent by the appointment of the king's council, the lord chancellor, lord privy seal, or one of them, to inhabit the city, borough or town within the realm that was destitute of such artificers.

   • 1859, “The Arms, Armour and Military Usages of the Fourteenth Century”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 206, page 14:

     Besides the bowyers and fletchers who made the bows and arrows, others were employed to keep them in repair: the pay of these men was sixpence a-day. Among the Tolls at Carlton Ride is the Account of the Clerk of the Privy Wardrobe, for armour, shot, &c., from 1372 to 1374; where, among many curious entries, occurs one “for the wages of two fletchers, each at vid. a-day, for going in the king's ships, and for the keeping and mending of bows and arrows in the said voyage".

   • 1955, “Sticks and Strings (A pot-pourri on bow and arrows from an article in "Michigan Conservation")”, in The Bowhunter‎^[1], number 5, page 29:

     An arrow maker is a fletcher, or, more exactly, one who feathers arrows.

2. A device to assist in fletching or feathering arrows.
   • 1940, Archery News‎^[2], volumes 19-27, page 35:

     I don't like using a fletcher, the single feather ones are too slow, and the three feather ones inaccurate.

   • 1941, School Shop‎^[3], volume 1, page 12:

     A fletcher that mechanically takes care of gluing feathers to arrow shafts is a great help in either making or repairing arrows.

   • 2014, Brian J. Sorrells, Guide to the Longbow: Tips, Advice, and History for Target Shooting and Hunting‎^[4]:

     Fletching jigs are available either as a single fletch unit or as a multi-fletcher, which can fletch up to six arrows at once.

   • 1992, by Randolph J. Hempton, Michigan Out-of-doors‎^[5], volume 46, page 72:

     A fletcher is the tool that actually holds the arrow and sets the vane or feather in place while it is being glued.

3. Generally, a manufacturer of bows and arrows.
   • 1810, The history and antiquities of the borough of Colchester, in the County of Essex‎^[6]:

     Robert Frankham of Colchester, fletcher, or maker of bows and arrowy, did, by his will, dated the 20th of July, 1577, give a yearly rent-charge of thirteen shillings and four-pence out of a tenement and six acres of land in West Bergholt, for ever;

   • 1853, “A Narrative of Border Warfare”, in The United Service Magazine‎^[7], page 402:

     Very speedily the Fletcher arrived. It was his trade, the making of bows and arrows, and the marks of the various makers were as well known to him as the marks on his own.

   • 2012, Shaun Robinson, A Knights Realm: Forsaken Rise‎^[8], page 13:

     […] some of the best bows were made by Elven fletchers in the nearby woods to the east of the city.

   • 2012, Nigel Jones, Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London‎^[9], page 88:

     In the spring of 1415 Nicholas Mynot was ordered by an impatient Henry to take on another dozen fletchers at the Tower armoury workshop to step up production of the bows and arrows needed in France

4. (UK, dialect, possibly dated) A weir or dam.
   • 1831, Liggins v. Inge, T. T. 1831 (court case), in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the English Courts (1832), page 289:

     […] the defendants cut down and lowered, and kept and continued so cut down and lowered, a part of the bank of the said river, situate and being between the mill of the defendants and the mill of the plaintiff, and on a part of the said bank so lowered, built and erected, and kept and continued so built and erected, a certain weir or fletcher, and by that means caused large quantities of the water of the said river, which otherwise would, and always before had, and still of right ought to have flowed to and through the plaintiff's mill, to flow in a new course or channel, […] and the said weir or fletcher, built and erected there by the defendant Inge in the month of June 1822; […]

   • 1896 September 5, Evesham Journal, quoted in the English Dialect Dictionary:

     They [some boards] had been washed away from the fletcher by the flood.

   • 1902, The Windsor Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women, page 451:

     You saw the river as you came along. Just above that bridge where you crossed there is a fletcher - weir, as some call them. Diver [a dog] used to cross the stream regular by running over the fletcher, and the other dogs picked up the trick from him.

• “fletcher”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “fletcher”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.