Bristlers
noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 plural of bristler form-of, plural
- 2 A group of German refugees with Marxist leanings in 1849 who scattered to Switzerland, France and England. derogatory, historical, plural, plural-only, slang
"The manufacturers agreed not to maintain any relations with the Bristlers' Trade Union, and they also agreed to introduce piecework wages where such wages did not exist, and to reduce the scale of piece-work where they did exist."
Example
More examples"The manufacturers agreed not to maintain any relations with the Bristlers' Trade Union, and they also agreed to introduce piecework wages where such wages did not exist, and to reduce the scale of piece-work where they did exist."
Etymology
A calque of German Bürstenheimer, coined by Abt (secretary to the Bishop of Freiburg) and applied to the Workers' Educational Association in Geneva.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.