Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that handles or directs something or someone.
  • noun One who trains or exhibits an animal, such as a dog.
  • noun One who acts as the trainer or second of a boxer.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A person employed in the transfer or placing of things by hand, or in some special kind of manipulation or management: as, a freight-handler; a handler of dogs or of game-cocks; a handler of fish for propagation (used of one who selects the ripe fish from a catch).
  • noun The first bath or pit in a tannery.
  • noun In ceramics, a workman who attaches to the bodies of vessels the handles, which have previously been molded in plaster-of-Paris molds.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun one who trains or exhibits animals.
  • noun someone in charge of training an athlete (especially a boxer) or a team.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun literally One who handles something (especially manually) or someone.
  • noun in combination A controller, trainer, someone who handles a specified thing, animal or person (especially a prizefighter), which can be specified in a combination
  • noun computing A subroutine that handles a particular situation such as an event or exception.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (sports) someone in charge of training an athlete or a team
  • noun one who trains or exhibits animals
  • noun an agent who handles something or someone

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

handle + -er

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Examples

Comments

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  • "2. The first bath or pit in a tannery." --CD&C

    December 12, 2011

  • Sounds like an initiation rite, with hazing.

    December 12, 2011

  • The first of the Century's definitions is also amusing.

    December 12, 2011