1561 in P. C. D. Brears Yorks. Probate Inventories 1542–1689 (1972) 12 3 skeles 16 bowles 2 synkers 5 chesfatts with dyshes 1 Chesepresse.

1596 in W. Greenwell Wills & Inventories Registry Durham (1860) II. 271 iij sinckers for to couer cheese.

1688 in E. Hall Michael Warton of Beverley (1986) 28 In the Dayry..4 Cheese Fatts 4 Sinckers 3 milke syles.

1772 M. Smith Compl. House-keeper 311 Lay the cloth in a cheese-vat, cover the cheese over with the cloth, and lay on the sinker with a weight of six pounds, to press it.

1844 C. W. Johnson Farmer's Encycl. I. 317/2 The sinker of the chessel or vat being pressed against the cross top, squeezes or stanes the cheese.

1889 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 50 444 Place it (the hoop) upon a piece of board..a sinker made of wood, and just sufficiently large to pass easily inside the mould, being placed on the top of curd. As a rule, no other weight should be used.

1969 E. H. Pinto Treen 102 When pressing a cheese, a heavy board, in early times known as a sinker, was fitted in the vat on top of the cheese.

2008 P. C. D. Brears Cooking & Dining in Medieval Eng. v. 83 Once a piston-like sinker had been placed on top, this was put into a cheese press so that the whey would be expelled.

c1689 Observ. Hammermen of Edinb. in Trans. Soc. Antiquaries Scotl. (1792) 1 180 [The framesmith's essay] six sinkers.

1772 W. Bailey Advancem. Arts, Manuf., & Commerce I. v. xiv. 212 The needles, sinkers, jacks, &c. are formed nearly in the same manner as in common Stocking Frames.

1843 Mechanic's Mag. 9 Dec. 428/2 There are no moving jacks, as usual; the sinkers are lowered or locked up by the alternate changing of a sliding bar from a horizontal to a vertical position.

1952 D. F. Paling Warp Knitting Technol. i. 6 The presser is now withdrawn.., thus causing the fabric loops to pass further up the needle beards until finally they are knocked-over the needle heads as the latter pass below the level of the sinkers.

2003 Melliand Internat. Sept. 232/2 All the needles and sinkers supplied are of the highest quality.

1840 Sporting Mag. Nov. 400 The ‘blocks’ attached to the ends of the collar-reins are generally called ‘sinkers’.

1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm I. 127 A leather stall-collar, having an iron-chain collar-shank to play through the ring.., with a turned wooden sinker at its end, to weigh it to the ground.

1903 Sheriff Court Rep. 356 in Sc. Law Rev. & Sheriff Court Rep. 19 The furnishings of the [horse-]box were different from those of others, in respect that the ropes were very much longer than is usual and safe, being about 41 inches in length, whereas 16 to 25 inches is an ordinary length of free rope from sinker to head stall.

1982 T. K. Ewer Pract. Animal Husbandry i. 16 The shank..is put through a ring or hole in the manger, with the end attached to a metal or wooden ‘sinker’ to prevent the horse from putting his foot on the head rope.

1785 J. Anderson Acct. Present State Hebrides App. No. 2. 341 One end of the line, to which is fixed a proper sinker, is then thrown into the sea.

1844 W. H. Maxwell Wanderings in Highlands & Islands I. App. 331 The loops in the lower baulk are loaded with sinkers of stone.

1849 H. W. Longfellow Kavanagh xx. 120 I perceive you fish with a heavy sinker,—down, far down in the future.

1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 7 A large float and heavy sinker and a worm or minnow for bait.

1981 P. Theroux Mosquito Coast (1982) ii. x. 155 One man down the beach threw a limp round net... Then he dragged it out, shook its sinkers and held it in his teeth while he untangled it.

2010 Coarse Fisherman Apr. 47/2 I, personally, prefer to have a sinker that will just allow me to work my bait at my chosen depth.

1852 R. H. Horne in Househ. Words 27 Mar. 22/2 A buoy is kept in its place by a large chain..fastened to a large flat iron slab, called a ‘sinker’.

1892 Daily News 29 July 6/6 It occupied about five minutes to haul in his sinker and compare the indication of his tube with the scale.

1944 Pop. Sci. Mar. 107 (caption) Sinkers made of concrete replace anchors of scarce steel for mooring buoys.

1972 New Scientist 1 June 492 The mines are usually launched attached to the sinker which goes down to the seabed carrying the mine with it.

2012 H. H. Kothe Grandpa was Sailor 65 Buoys were anchored in position with cube-shaped concrete sinkers that came in sizes of three to nine tons.

1870 J. H. Beadle Life in Utah viii. 223 Our favorite dinner, when we could get the meat, was of fried ham and ‘sinkers’.

1908 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 24 Oct. 18/2 The sinker was, undoubtedly, the deadliest enemy of the growing boy.

1996 Dominion (Wellington, N.Z.) 24 May 12 Try them [sc. carrots]..with celery, stored onions and horseradish dumplings, which we used to call ‘10-minute sinkers’.

2014 L. Baxter In Love & War 69 ‘It's stew with sinkers.’ ‘Sinkers? What are they?’ ‘Dumplings, but when Mrs C makes them they really are sinkers. They're heavy and floury but they're filling.’

1906 N.Y. Evening Post 10 Dec. 14 Without ‘sinkers’, corn cakes, cream puffs, ‘cookies’, and other standard foodstuffs at reasonable prices to appease the appetite between lectures, it is simply impossible to go on studying.

1926 E. Ferber Show Boat xiii. 268 The coffee was hot, strong, revivifying; the sinkers crisp and fresh.

1986 R. Ford Sportswriter vi. 156 Mr. Smallwood pulls into a white enamel drive-in..and asks if I want a sinker. I am full to the gills from breakfast.

2010 N.Y. Mag. 15 Mar. 64/4 Crisp-edged, moist-crumbed, and exuding pure doughnutty flavor at every pore, these sinkers come in two sizes and a variety of rotating flavors.

1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick lxxviii. 382 No sign of either the sinker or the diver.

1913 H. B. Mart Golf Farms 59 When he came to this pond hole he tossed the boy a ball and said: ‘Boy, will you find out if this is a sinker?’

1947 M. Renick Swimming Fever iii. 36 Bill's feet stayed on the bottom. ‘What's this?’ Mike exclaimed. ‘Who'd have thought it? Bill is a sinker.’

1990 G. G. Liddy Monkey Handlers xiii. 222 The tall guy..kept teasing the other white guy that he was a sinker an' all and couldn't really swim.

2007 J. Richman & A. Sheth Bk. of Poo 30 It is impossible to predict whether a poo will be a Floater or a Sinker until it hits the water and settles in.

1884 Redwood & Lumbering in Calif. Forests 95 The well matured heartwood of the base of these trees is so solid as to sink in water—hence designated as ‘sinkers’.

1915 P. B. Kyne Cappy Ricks 28 A sinker is a heavy, close-grained clear redwood butt-log, which, if cut in the spring,..is so heavy it will not float in the mill-pond.

1969 Marine Digest 4 Jan. 6/2 Ferry manager..blamed the accident on a sinker.

2005 J. Roberts Redux 34/1 Back when floating logs downriver was a cheap way to get them to sawmills, loggers didn't worry if a few so-called ‘deadheads’ or ‘sinkers’ sunk to the bottom.