What does "doffer" mean?

In a carding machine, a device such as a revolving cylinder or a vibrating bar with teeth, that doffs, that is to say strips off, the carded cotton or other fiber from the cards; or a hand tool for the same function in smaller machines or in manual carding.

Doffer

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
In a carding machine, a device such as a revolving cylinder or a vibrating bar with teeth, that doffs, that is to say strips off, the carded cotton or other fiber from the cards; or a hand tool for the same function in smaller machines or in manual carding.
2
A worker who replaces full bobbins by empty ones on the throstle or ring frames. The job was often done by children.
"It has more varied exercises too than has the hand of the child who enters a mill. For though a doffer or factory child does use his hand all day long, it is but a very small group of muscles that is brought into activity."

Example

More examples

"It has more varied exercises too than has the hand of the child who enters a mill. For though a doffer or factory child does use his hand all day long, it is but a very small group of muscles that is brought into activity."

Etymology

From doff + -er.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.