singer
Pluralsingers
- 1A person who sings, often as a profession.
The lead singer held the final note for nearly ten seconds.
She trained for years before becoming a professional singer.
Similarvocalist
Note
A native word, inherited from Middle English synger and built the obvious way, sing plus -er. Its cousins in neighboring languages look much the same: Scots singar, West Frisian sjonger, Low German Singer. Watch the spelling, though. An unrelated word made from singe produces the identical form, so in a text about flame or cloth, singer may be the one who singes.
- 2A square-dance figure with a fixed structure that a caller sings, or a piece of music having that structure.
The band struck up a singer while the dancers formed their squares.
Each singer in the program had its own calling pattern.
Note
Square dancing uses the word for a whole routine, not a person. The caller sings the calls to the tune instead of speaking them. Because the structure is fixed, calls and music fit together from start to finish. The same word covers the tune itself, so a band can strike up a singer. It counts like any noun: a singer, each singer, a program of singers.
- 3USSIN-jur/ˈsɪnd͡ʒɚ/UKSIN-juh/ˈsɪnd͡ʒə/A person or a device that singes, lightly burning the surface of something.
The singer at the slaughterhouse passed each carcass through flame to clear away the down.
A skilled singer could clean a dozen fowl without scorching the skin.
Note
Here the word comes from singe, not sing. It is singe plus -er, with the final e of singe absorbed into the suffix. That is why it collides exactly with the word for a vocalist. It names either a worker or a tool that passes something lightly through flame. Context does the sorting: in writing about burning, scorching or dressing fowl, read it as this word.
- 4USSIN-jur/ˈsɪnd͡ʒɚ/UKSIN-juh/ˈsɪnd͡ʒə/A machine for singeing cloth, burning off the loose fibers that stand up from its surface.
The mill's singer removed the fuzzy surface from every bolt of cotton.
Operators adjusted the singer so the flame would not scorch the fabric.
Note
Textile finishing gives the singeing device a particular job. The machine passes fabric quickly over gas flames or heated plates to burn off the fibers that stand up from the surface. This leaves the cloth smooth and even before it is dyed or printed. It is the industrial specialization of the general singeing tool and shares that word's origin in singe.
Practice
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Origins
Inherited from Middle English synger, equivalent to "sing" plus "-er". It is related to Scots singar, West Frisian sjonger, and German Sänger.
Formed from the verb "singe" plus the suffix "-er".