tractorn.
/ˈtraktə/, U.S. /ˈtræktər/ 1. plural (in full (Perkins's) metallic tractors): Name of a device invented by Elisha Perkins, an American physician (died 1799), consisting of a pair of pointed rods of different metals, as brass and steel, which were believed to relieve rheumatic or other pain by being drawn or rubbed over the skin: see Perkinism n. Obsolete exc. Historical.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medical appliances or equipment > other medical equipment > [noun] > other miscellaneous equipment
wresting thread1616
tractors1798
tetanomotor1860
examining table1877
wire instrumenta1884
wristband1884
nasal spray1888
mackintosh sheet1889
gas mask1892
bath-bed1894
inspissator1897
Murphy's button1899
trembling-chair1899
solenoid1901
sunray1921
oxygenator1928
white cane1930
white stick1930
microdrive1955
photocoagulator1965
bubble1966
stimoceiver1967
hospital gown1970
smart pill1988
1798 C. C. Langworthy (title) A View of the Perkinean Electricity; or, an Inquiry into the Influence of Metallic Tractors.
1801 E. Darwin Zoonomia (ed. 3) II. 63 With the supposed existence of ghosts or apparitions, witchcraft, vampyrism..and American tractors, such theories..must vanish.
1819 R. Southey Select. from Lett. (1856) III. 499 His prayers may cure just as well as tractors or animal magnetism.
1885 J. G. Whittier Prose Wks. (1889) II. 314 Jacob Perkins, in drawing out diseases with his metallic tractors, was quite as successful as modern ‘faith and mind’ doctors.
2. One who or that which draws or pulls something.
a. In general sense.
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the world > movement > impelling or driving > pushing and pulling > [noun] > pulling > one who or that which
drawer1294
puller1332
dragger?a1500
haler1534
hauler1674
draughtsman1795
trailer1808
tractor1856
1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. I. 149 His limbs..splendid tractors for the sledge.
1880 Daily Tel. 23 Sept. The introduction of the iron road with its steam-horse for tractor.
Categories »
b. Surgery. ‘An obstetric forceps’ (E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. 1877).
c. A traction-engine; a locomotive engine of any kind used for traction of loaded wagons, artillery, etc., on ordinary roads, or for drawing gang-ploughs; also, ‘the frame and steel rope by which a gang of plows is drawn across a field by a traction-engine’ ( Cent. Dict. Supp.). In modern use (now the usual sense), a rugged, powerful motor vehicle for drawing farm machinery, esp. one with large rear wheels and an elevated driving seat. Cf. caterpillar tractor at caterpillar n. 1b.
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the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > tractor
tractor1901
agrimotor1916
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > other vehicles according to specific use > [noun] > for drawing a load > specific powered
tractor1901
mule1903
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > other vehicles according to specific use > [noun] > for drawing a load > specific powered > farm tractor
tractor1901
1901 Daily Chron. 2 Aug. 6/4 These transformers supply the overhead trolley wires, which feed special ‘electrical tractors’ running along the towing-path, and in these tractors the drivers sit and control operations.
1902 Daily Chron. 29 Oct. 3/4 The County Council has not yet sanctioned the use of the tractor, but it will come before the members for consideration at an early date.
1903 Motor. Ann. 253 Rhodesia has appealed to motor manufacturers to supply motor-wagons or tractors for use specially in hilly country.
1905 Sci. Amer. Suppl. 4 Nov. 24948/3 At the recent show of the British Royal Agricultural Society great interest was centered in the Scott motor tractor... The motor in this tractor is a 24-horse-power..standard Aster engine.
1910 Sci. Amer. 15 Jan. 51/2 American motor tractors used for plowing and threshing usually develop from 12 to 35 horse-power.
1917 Isle of Ely & Wisbech Advertiser 28 Nov. This Tractor will operate on any land... It maintains a firm grip without injuring the lightest surfaces.
1932 Discovery Jan. 11/2 The combine-harvester—a machine in which a reaper is attached to a portable threshing machine and the whole is drawn by a tractor through the standing corn, leaving a trail of sacks of threshed grain and another of straw in its wake.
1958 Economist 11 Jan. 94/2 Antarctica's native inhabitants, on seeing the tractor marks in the snow, may well..ask themselves what will happen next.
1972 R. Adams Watership Down xix. 111 Few places are far from human noise—cars, buses, motor-cycles, tractors, lorries.
d. Aeronautics. An airscrew mounted at the front of an aircraft so as to exert a pull; an aircraft having this. Usually attributive (see Compounds 1b). Cf. pusher n. 2c.
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society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > aeroplane > parts of aircraft > means of propulsion > [noun] > aircraft engine > propeller > types of propeller
tractor1903
contrapropeller1927
controllable-pitch1929
fixed-pitch propeller1931
contraprop1940
propfan1970
propulsor1975
1903 Work 18 Apr. 171/1 A screw..working in front and acting as a tractor.
1909 S. F. Cody in Aeronaut. Jrnl. XIII. 19/1 This is the finished power kite ready to start. The screws are not really propellers. You may call them tractors or propellers, which you like.
1980 H. F. King Sopwith Aircraft 1912–20 20 Concerning the two early Naval Sopwith tractors, it seems worth recording that a demi-official drawing once existed showing just such a machine.
e. The driving section of an articulated lorry.
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society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > motor lorry, truck, or van > [noun] > truck or lorry > articulated lorry > driving section of
tractor1926
1926 Encycl. Brit. II. 987/2 Another combination for heavy merchandise transportation consisted of a road tractor, which was merely a foreshortened truck chassis, and a semi-trailer.
1951 Amer. Speech 26 308/2 Landing gear, a strong support that holds up the front end of a semi-trailer when it is not attached to a tractor.
1977 ‘D. Rutherford’ Return Load ii. 28 He had..invested a legacy..in a Leyland prime mover... Like most owner-drivers he made a practice of hiring the semi-trailers which, when hitched to the tractor, made up the complete articulated vehicle.
1982 New Scientist 11 Nov. 339/2 A lorry that has been loaded quite legally will tend to become overloaded on the drive axle (the rear of the two axles on the tractor) if it is gradually unloaded from the rear.
f. The mechanism that draws the paper through a printer.
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society > communication > printing > printing machine or press > parts of printers or presses > [noun] > paper-feed
paper feeder1875
paper-feed1910
tractor1970
1970 U.S. Patent 3,511,354 2 A switch is operated to reduce the speed of the tractor whenever..an excess of forms queued between the tractor and the stacker is such that a forms jam is imminent.
1983 Austral. Microcomputer Mag. Sept. 88/3 The TDS-13 daisy wheel printer handles paper up to 15in wide and has variable tractors and a friction platen to accommodate both continuous forms and sheets.
3. Geometry. (See quot.)
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the world > relative properties > number > geometry > line > [noun] > tangent
touchline1551
adscript1636
tangent1655
focal tangent1706
semi-tangent1823
tractor1867
bitangent1873
slope1889
1867 A. Cayley Coll. Math. Papers VII. 73 I use the term ‘tractor’ to denote a line which meets any given lines.
1867 A. Cayley Coll. Math. Papers VII. 73 Four given lines may be directrices (generating lines) of the same hyperboloid, viz. every tractor of any three of the four lines is then a tractor of all the four lines.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a. (In sense 2c.)
(a)
tractor-driver n.
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1945 H. J. Massingham Wisdom of Fields x. 208 The tractor-driver despises the hard work of the older countryman and soon..he will need an elevator to lift him on his seat.
1969 R. Blythe Akenfield 17 Most modern farms need..a good tractor-driver or two, as once they needed good ploughmen.
tractor-station n.
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1958 New Statesman 5 Apr. 423/2 The state is going to sell..some 20 billion roubles worth of farm machinery at present in the garages and parking lots of some 8,000 machine and tractor stations.
1965 M. Michael tr. J. Myrdal Rep. Chinese Village (1967) i. 44 We hire one [tractor] from the tractor station at Yenan.
(b)
tractor-drawn adj.
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1943 J. S. Huxley TVA 43 (caption) Terraces, like the one being thrown up by a tractor-drawn grader..retain from 85 to 90 per cent. of the rainfall.
1971 Power Farming Mar. 57/1 The machine is tractor-drawn.
tractor-driven adj.
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1921 Discovery Feb. 48/2 He can..use horse- or tractor-driven machines..without damaging the crop.
tractor-mounted adj.
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1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 12 Jan. 83/2 Tractor-mounted rotary tiller.
1979 Internat. Pest Control Nov.–Dec. 139/1 Larger units to fit tractor-mounted spray booms.
b. (In sense 2d.)
tractor aeroplane n.
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1917 Daily Mail 19 July 4/5 A ‘tractor’ aeroplane is one in which the propeller is in front of the planes and the pilot.
tractor aircraft n.
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1969 K. Munson Pioneer Aircraft 1903–14 110/1 A very early British Breguet bore the legend ‘B. 3’ on the rudder, the prefix letter indicating a tractor aircraft.
tractor airscrew n.
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1932 Rep. & Mem. Aeronaut. Res. Committee No. 1522. 1 The magnitude of the retardation of air flow..has a mean value of 0·05 for a tractor airscrew in front of a medium body.
tractor biplane n.
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1912 S. F. Walker Aviation iv. 28 In the later form of biplane, known as the tractor biplane, the engine and propeller are placed in front.
1969 K. Munson Pioneer Aircraft 1903–14 98/1 Antoinette III was the alternative title of the Ferber IX, a tractor biplane..which was abandoned after only a few trial flights in..1908.
tractor machine n.
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1928 C. F. S. Gamble Story N. Sea Air Station iv. 67 He was then of the opinion that ‘pusher machines’ were superior to ‘tractor machines’.
1980 H. F. King Sopwith Aircraft 1912–20 20 With a tractor aeroplane that was only a little faster than one of his motor~boats..Sopwith could hardly be content.
tractor monoplane n.
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1960 C. H. Gibbs-Smith Aeroplane x. 54 The year 1907 saw the crystallisation of the two basic forms of early aeroplane—the pusher biplane and the tractor monoplane.
tractor plane n.
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1919 Athenæum 23 May 360/2 Tractor-plane.
tractor propeller n.
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1910 R. Ferris How it Flies xx. 473 Tractor propeller, a propeller placed in front, so that it pulls the machine through the air, instead of pushing, or thrusting it from behind.
tractor screw n.
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1910 C. C. Turner Aerial Navigation viii. 127 In many monoplanes a single screw in front is used. It pulls the machine, and is often called a ‘tractor’ screw.
1913 Captain Sept. 1069/2 More biplanes than formerly use tractor screws in front, instead of propellers behind the main planes.
tractor seaplane n.
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1969 K. Munson Pioneer Aircraft 1903–14 12 A Sopwith tractor seaplane.
C2.
tractor-binder n. a mechanically driven binder or harvester.
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1922 24 Nov. 8 He was driving a tractor-binder through a crop of green wheat.
tractorman n. one who drives a farm tractor.
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the world > food and drink > farming > farmer > [noun] > farm worker
hindc1230
land-tiliec1275
fieldera1425
fieldmana1425
land-tiller?a1500
field labourer1610
scullogue1665
fieldworker1691
field hand1774
spalpeen1780
land-worker1782
farmhand1794
field woman1813
grass comber1825
cowman1828
chamar1858
guajiro1901
shamba boy1907
cowman-gardener1908
tractorman1946
hoggler1986
farm worker2017
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > driving or operating a vehicle > driver or operator of vehicle > [noun] > driver of motor vehicle > driver of tractor
tractorman1946
1946 J. W. Day Harvest Adventure xiii. 210 Grover, the head tractorman.
1976 Northumberland Gaz. 26 Nov. Farmers appreciate the difficulties faced by shepherds and tractormen, he said.
tractor plough n. a mechanically driven plough.
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1919 Athenæum 23 May 360/2 Tractor-plough.
tractor-trailer n. U.S. an articulated lorry; cf. trailer-truck n. at trailer n. Compounds 2.
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society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > motor lorry, truck, or van > [noun] > truck or lorry > articulated lorry
artic1945
tractor-trailer1949
trailer-truck1958
1949 Sun (Baltimore) 4 Aug. 1/8 An automobile crashed into a tractor-trailer truck that jackknifed in a driving rain.
1977 D. E. Westlake Nobody's Perfect xi. 143 A large tractor-trailer was..trying to back into position.
Derivatives
Also (in sense 2c.)† tractoˈration n. Obsolete the use of metallic tractors (see 1): also allusively.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > types of treatment generally > [noun] > other miscellaneous treatments
majoration1626
relaxant1661
diaeresis1706
blistering1711
Perkinism1798
tranquillizing1801
tractoration1803
tractorism1827
moxibustion1833
traction1841
remediation1850
moxocausis1857
bed-rest1872
aerotherapeutics1876
aerotherapy1876
metallotherapy1877
block1882
counter-irritation1882
bacteriotherapy1886
mechanotherapy1890
mobilization1890
seismotherapy1901
bacterization1902
replacement therapy1902
biotherapy1912
occupational therapy1915
protein therapy1917
psychophysicotherapeutics1922
recovery programme1922
plombage1933
bacteriostasis1936
oestrogenization1960
hyperalimentation1962
vegetablization1963
pain management1966
palliative care1967
gene therapy1970
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > anaesthetization, pain-killing, etc. > [noun] > analgesia > method using metallic tractors
Perkinism1798
tractoration1803
tractorism1827
traction1841
1803 T. G. Fessenden (ed. 2) (title) Terrible Tractoration! A Poetical Petition against Galvanising Trumpery, and the Perkinistic Institution.
1861 O. W. Holmes Med. Ess. Pref. (1891) 9 Homœopathy has not died out so rapidly as Tractoration.
ˈtractoring adj. using metallic tractors.
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1803 T. G. Fessenden Poet. Petition iii. 62 And you'll confound the tractoring folks By Haygarth's tale.
ˈtractorism n. Obsolete = tractoration n.Apparently an isolated use.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > types of treatment generally > [noun] > other miscellaneous treatments
majoration1626
relaxant1661
diaeresis1706
blistering1711
Perkinism1798
tranquillizing1801
tractoration1803
tractorism1827
moxibustion1833
traction1841
remediation1850
moxocausis1857
bed-rest1872
aerotherapeutics1876
aerotherapy1876
metallotherapy1877
block1882
counter-irritation1882
bacteriotherapy1886
mechanotherapy1890
mobilization1890
seismotherapy1901
bacterization1902
replacement therapy1902
biotherapy1912
occupational therapy1915
protein therapy1917
psychophysicotherapeutics1922
recovery programme1922
plombage1933
bacteriostasis1936
oestrogenization1960
hyperalimentation1962
vegetablization1963
pain management1966
palliative care1967
gene therapy1970
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > anaesthetization, pain-killing, etc. > [noun] > analgesia > method using metallic tractors
Perkinism1798
tractoration1803
tractorism1827
traction1841
1827 J. Bentham Rationale Judicial Evid. V. ix. iii. vii. 189 The impostures that..have been seen acted on the spiritual and medical theatres: to exorcism, animal magnetism, and tractorism.
ˈtractorist n. Obsolete one who uses metallic tractors.Apparently an isolated use.
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1827 J. Bentham Rationale Judicial Evid. V. ix. vii. 189 The operations..of the magnetist and the tractorist no less so, in the expulsion of non-existent diseases.
ˈtractorize v. Obsolete (intransitive) to use metallic tractors; transitive to get by tractorizing (quot. 1803); to treat with metallic tractors or similar appliances (quot. 1817 for tractorizing n. and adj.).Apparently an isolated use.
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1803 T. G. Fessenden Poet. Petition iii. viii To tractorise away our guineas.
ˈtractorizing n. and adj. Obsolete
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1803 T. G. Fessenden (title) A Poetical Petition against Tractorising Trumpery, and the Perkinistic Institution.
1817 Monthly Mag. 43 293 Which cures were performed..by tractorizing them with rusty nails.
ˈtractorcade n. [-cade suffix] a procession of tractors.
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society > travel > [noun] > passage in a continuous stream > procession > of vehicles
motorcade1910
autocade1924
tractorcade1977
1977 Detroit Free Press 11 Dec. 13- a/3 State and local police said there were no reports of traffic problems or arrests as a result of the so-called ‘tractorcade’.
1981 Observer 22 Nov. 11/1 Towns throughout Northern Ireland will be choked with ‘tractorcades’ and marches.
ˈtractored adj. ploughed or cultivated by tractors.Apparently an isolated use.
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the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > ploughing > [adjective] > ploughed > by tractors
tractored1965
1965 W. H. Auden About House (1966) 37 A house backed by orderly woods, Facing a tractored sugar-beet country.
ˈtractoring n. activity involving a farm tractor.Apparently an isolated use.
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the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > [noun] > work done by a tractor
tractoring1949
1949 E. Coxhead Wind in West iii. 69 One [man] got out the tractor... When the tractoring was finished Les..got himself a fork from the byre.
Draft additions March 2008
tractor beam n. Science Fiction a (hypothetical) beam of energy used to move or immobilize objects in space.
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1931 Amazing Stories Sept. 549/1 Brandon swung mighty tractor beams upon the severed halves of the Jovian vessel.
1948 Astounding Sci. Fiction Feb. 10/2 It captures three different scanner-scouts, holding them with some sort of a tractor beam, whirling them around like a stone on a string, and letting them go straight at the nearest planet.
2002 Electronic Gaming Monthly Mar. 135/3 Jab the grind button anywhere near an edge..and you get yanked to it like you're caught in a tractor beam.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1798- hold one's nose
- hold one's nose to the grindstone
- hold one's own
- hold one's peace
- hold one's rent
- hold one's residence
- hold one's serve
- hold one's sides
- hold one's silence
- hold one's spousal
- hold one's stall
- hold one's state
- hold one's tongue
- hold one's water
- hold one's way
- hold one's whisht
- hold one's whist
- hold one's word
- hold one'the breath
- hold oneself still
- hold open house
- hold open household
- hold open shop
- hold or bring bare buckle and thong together
- hold or bring buckle and thong together