flax-dresser

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a worker who prepares flax or hemp fiber for spinning by breaking, scutching, and hackling it

   The flax-dresser removed the woody pieces before combing the long fibers for linen yarn.

From flax plus dresser, a person who prepares a material. Flax descends from Old English fleax; dresser comes from dress, through Old French drecier, 'to arrange or prepare.' The occupation covered the early stages that separated and aligned flax fibers before spinning.

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