chaser

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtʃeɪsə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃeɪsɚ/

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• Rhymes: -eɪsə(ɹ)

From Middle English chaser, chacer, chasour, borrowed from Old French chaceür, chaceor, from chacier (“to chase, hunt”); later senses from or influenced by chase (“pursue”) +‎ -er. Doublet of chasseur.

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. (archaic) A hunter. [from 15th c.]
3. A horse: (originally) a horse used for hunting; (now) a horse trained for steeplechasing, a steeplechaser. [from 14th c.]
   • 2002, Nick Mordin, Betting for a Living, 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, Avalyn Hunter, American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002, 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."

4. A drink consumed after another of a different kind.

   Coordinate term: back

   beer chaser

   straight, no chaser

   • 1947, John Clarkson Jay, Skiing the Americas, page 115:

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

   • 2019, “People's Faces”, in The Book of Traps and Lessons, performed by Kae Tempest:

     All this stuff is blocking us / I'm neat with no chaser / I'm all spirit, but I'm sinking

5. (logging, obsolete) Someone who 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, Ralph Clement Bryant, Logging: The Principles and General Methods of Operation in the United States, 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 Commerce:

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

6. (logging) One who unhooks chokers from the logs at the landing.
   • 1956, Stewart Hall Holbrook, Holy Old Mackinaw: A Natural History of the American Lumber-Jack, page 184:

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

   • 1975, Fred Moira Farrow, Nobody Here But Us: Pioneers of the North, page 170:

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

   • 1985, John Kenneth Pearce, George Stenzel, Logging and Pulpwood Production, 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".

7. (slang, historical) A piece of music, etc. played after a performance while the audience leaves.
   • 1969, Robert Dean Klassen, The Tent-repertoire Theatre: A Rural American Institution, page 95:

     After the final curtain the orchestra played a "chaser" which was music played while the audience members not remaining for the after-show concert left the theatre.

   • 2009, Andre Gaudreault, American Cinema 1890-1909: Themes and Variations, page 113:

     Films had become a regular feature of the typical vaudeville program, ending most programs and occasionally serving as a “chaser” that encouraged audiences to leave the continuous programs rather than retain their seats to watch them a second time.

8. One of a series of adjacent light bulbs that cycle on and off to give the illusion of movement.
9. A long piece of flexible wire used to draw an electrical cable through a wall cavity.
10. Synonym of prison chaser (“person who guards military prisoners”)
11. (slang) A person who seeks out sexual partners with a particular quality:
    1. (slang) A tranny chaser.
       • 2016, Michael David Freel, Trans-Oriented: A Guide to Love and Relationships, →ISBN:

         These types despise TGentlemen and insist that any man who is interested in TGirls is automatically a troll, a chaser, or just a gay man in denial.

    2. (slang) A chubby chaser.
    3. (slang) A person who seeks partners with HIV in order to become infected.

       Synonym: bug-chaser

       • 2016, An Undercover Look Inside the World of HIV Bug Chasers and Gift Givers‎:

         At any given time, there are often dozens of people actively posting online ads as “chasers” or “gifters” in San Francisco and elsewhere around the nation .. Though chasers and gifters are active around the world, many see San Francisco as a kind of mecca .. apps like Grindr and Recon, as well as the website Breeding.Zone, where gifters and chasers share advice and stories about their sexual experiences, make it relatively straightforward to meet people who want to be infected with the virus that causes AIDS — or to infect their partners.

12. (fiction, Harry Potter) In the sport of Quidditch or Muggle quidditch, a player responsible for passing the quaffle and scoring goals with it.
13. Any dragonfly of family Libellulidae.

From chase (“groove; decorate metal”) +‎ -er.

chaser (plural chasers)

1. Someone who chases (decorates) metal; a person who decorates metal by engraving or embossing. [from 18th c.]
   • 1863, Virginia Penny, The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work, page 100:

     "Mr B., heraldic chaser, says there are several processes in making heraldy plates, sketching, engraving, embossing, chasing and burnishing."
     "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 piece, working ten hours a day, and some can earn $1 a day."

   • 1971, George Bernard Hughes, Living Crafts, 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 surface with a paper pattern in which the design is pricked with pins."

   • 1972, Richard Came, Silver, page 7:

     "Chasing in general can be distinguished 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."

2. A tool used for cleaning out screw 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, Franklin Day Jones, Thread-cutting Methods: A Treatise on the Operation and Use of Various Tools and Machines for forming screw threads..., page 32:

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

   • 1994, Francis T. Farago, Mark A. Curtis, Handbook of Dimensional Measurement, page 467:

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

3. (nautical) A chase gun.

   bow chaser; stern chaser

• “chaser”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Arches, Ascher, Rasche, Schaer, Search, achers, arches, arsech, casher, chares, eschar, raches, search