English

Noun

chaser ‎(plural chasers)

1. A person or thing (ship, plane, car, etc.) that chases. [from 14th c.]
   • 2007, David Oatman, Old Favorites, New Fun (page 32)

     One student is the chaser and the other is the chasee. Give the chasee three seconds to get away and then allow the chaser to attempt to tag the chasee.

2. Originally, a horse used for hunting; now, a horse trained for steeplechasing, a steeplechaser. [from 14th c.]
   • 2002: Betting for a Living by Nick Mordin - Page 351

     "[I]t looked like The Fellow was the best steeplechaser in many years. He'd earned the best speed rating I'd ever given a chaser."

   • 2003: American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 by Avalyn Hunter - Page 458

     "Wild Risk...had his greatest successes as a steeplechaser rather than a flat racer... It is rare indeed that a 'chaser - even one as good as wild risk - makes a good flat sire."

   • 2004: Sports Ticket: Live the Action! by Sportsfile - Page 179

     "Oh, that final furlong! It can be both agony and ecstasy. Anyone who doubts that should have seen the television close-up of Jim Lewis as his great chaser Best Mate came up the final hill at Cheltenham in 2004 to clich a hat-trick of Gold Cups. ... Best mate is the best steeplechaser we have seen for years and all being well will be at the Cheltenham Festival again in 2005 to try and make it four Gold Cups."

3. (archaic) A hunter. [from 15th c.]
4. Someone who chases metal; a person who decorates metal by engraving or embossing. [from 18th c.]
   • 1863: The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work By Virginia Penny

     "Mr B., heraldic chaser, says there are several processes in making heraldy plates, sketching, engraving, embossing, chasing and burnishing." (page 100)

     "H. & C., manufacturers of cloth and gilt buttons, say it requires some weeks to learn to chase the gilt buttons, which are done with small metal tools and a hammer. Chasers are paid by the peice, working ten hours a day, and some can earn $1 a day."

   • 1971: Living Crafts by George Bernard Hughes - page 36

     "Flat chasing in sunken or low relief is a technique by which the ornament is formed by beating down the ground from the front. This is done in essentially the same manner as repoussé work, where the ornament appears in high relief, but the design is punched from the face of the silver plate. ... Sometimes, instead of applying a freehand design, the chaser covers the greased suface with a paper pattern in which the design is pricked with pins."

   • 1972: Silver by Richard Came - Page 7

     "Chasing in general can be distinguised from engraving, in that the design can be seen on the reverse or inside of the pieces. Having outlined the pattern on the surface, the chaser cuts and at the same time slightly depresses the surface. A light hammer can be used in this process also."

5. A tool used for cleaning out **** threads, either as an integral part of a tap or die to remove waste material produced by the cutting tool, or as a separate tool to repair damaged threads. [from 19th c.]
   • 1894: Machinery (author(s) unknown) (Page 141)

     "In Fig. i is shown one of the chasers in the position which it occupies in cutting a thread."

   • 1918: Thread-cutting Methods: A Treatise on the Operation and Use of Various Tools and Machines for forming **** threads... by Franklin Day Jones (Page 32)

     "Many **** threads are also finished completely with chasers of this type, although they are not adapted for extremely acurate work unless the teeth are ground after hardening, because the pitch of the chaser teeth is affected more or less by..."

   • 1994: Handbook of Dimensional Measurement by Francis T. Farago, Mark A. Curtis (p.467)

     "The category of thread cutting tools inlcudes both the single-point and multiple-point [chaser type] lathe cutters."

6. A mild drink consumed immediately after a drink of hard liquor. [from 19th c.]
   • 1947: Skiing the Americas, by John Clarkson Jay, p. 115:

     "Cowboys in high-heeled boots teeter along its sidewalks, or push the swinging doors aside for a shot or two — straight, no chaser."

7. (Israel) A shot of hard liquor.
8. (logging, obsolete) Someone that follows logs out of the forest in order to signal a yarder engineer to stop them if they become fouled - also called a frogger.
   • 1900: Pamphlets on Logging Equipment [author unknown] - Page 22

     "...on one end known as a Bardon choker hook, to facilitate making a loop. It stays tight and makes it unnecessary for the "chaser" or "choker setter" to follow the "turn" to the landing as might have to be done if tongs are used"

   • 1913: Logging: The Principles and General Methods of Operation in the United States by Ralph Clement Bryant - Page 219

     "A chaser follows the logs to the landing, often riding in a rigging sled hollowed out of a log, which is attached to the rear log. The chaser can signal to the road engineer at any point..."

   • 1918: United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation: Hearing Before the Committee on ... by United States Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce

     "and the chaser is the fellow whose job it is to follow along after these logs to..."

9. (logging) one who unhooks chokers from the logs at the landing.
   • 1956: Holy Old Mackinaw: A Natural History of the American Lumber- Jack by Stewart Hall Holbrook - Page 184

     "The rigging slinger hooks the chokers to the main line' the chaser unhooks them at the spar tree."

   • 1975: Nobody Here But Us: Pioneers of the North by Fred Moira Farrow - Page 170

     A chaser was the man who unhooked the logs that were yarded in to the spar tree.

   • 1985: Logging and Pulpwood Production by John Kenneth Pearce, George Stenzel - Pages 242-243

     "When the turn arrives at the landing, the chaser directs the engineer where to drop the turn by hand signals. The chaser then unhooks the chokers, gets in the clear, and singlas to reel in the haulback line".

10. One of a series of adjacent light bulbs that cycle on and off to give the illusion of movement.
11. (nautical) A chase gun.

    bow chaser; stern chaser

Coordinate terms

• (mild drink): back

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• achers, Arches, arches, casher, eschar, search