mercer

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mer·cer

 (mûr′sər)
n. Chiefly British
A dealer in textiles, especially silks.

[Middle English, from Old French mercier, trader, from merz, merchandise, from Latin merx, merc-, merchandise.]

mer′cer·y (mûrs′rē, mûr′sə-rē) n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mercer

(ˈmɜːsə)
n
(Commerce) Brit a dealer in textile fabrics and fine cloth
[C13: from Old French mercier dealer, from Vulgar Latin merciārius (unattested), from Latin merx goods, wares]
ˈmercery n

Mercer

(ˈmɜːsə)
n
(Biography) Johnny, full name John Herndon Mercer. 1909–76, US popular songwriter and singer. His most popular songs include "Blues in the Night" (1941) and "Moon River" (1961)
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mer•cer

(ˈmɜr sər)

n.
Brit. a dealer in fine textiles and fabrics.
[1150–1200; Middle English < Anglo-French; Old French mercier merchant <merz merchandise]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.mercer - a dealer in textiles (especially silks)mercer - a dealer in textiles (especially silks)
Britain, Great Britain, U.K., UK, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; `Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom
bargainer, dealer, monger, trader - someone who purchases and maintains an inventory of goods to be sold
2.mercer - British maker of printed calico cloth who invented mercerizing (1791-1866)Mercer - British maker of printed calico cloth who invented mercerizing (1791-1866)
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in classic literature ?
However, as I have said, it made me the more wary, and particularly I was very shy of shoplifting, especially among the mercers and drapers, who are a set of fellows that have their eyes very much about them.
It seems it was a mercer's shop that they had rifled.
"If you want to address our people, sir," say Blaze and Sparkle, the jewellers--meaning by our people Lady Dedlock and the rest--"you must remember that you are not dealing with the general public; you must hit our people in their weakest place, and their weakest place is such a place." "To make this article go down, gentlemen," say Sheen and Gloss, the mercers, to their friends the manufacturers, "you must come to us, because we know where to have the fashionable people, and we can make it fashionable." "If you want to get this print upon the tables of my high connexion, sir," says Mr.
"And did the mercer,"* rejoined Athos, "tell you, D'Artagnan, that the queen thought that Buckingham had been brought over by a forged letter?"
Let us separate, and let us seek the mercer's wife--that is the key of the intrigue."
Some people think that he may have been a mercer or cloth merchant, because later Caxton was apprenticed to one of the richest cloth merchants of London.
"And one of them, named Sheffield, a mercer, came into a house and asked for meat.
One day, as I was in the Alcana of Toledo, a boy came up to sell some pamphlets and old papers to a silk mercer, and, as I am fond of reading even the very scraps of paper in the streets, led by this natural bent of mine I took up one of the pamphlets the boy had for sale, and saw that it was in characters which I recognised as Arabic, and as I was unable to read them though I could recognise them, I looked about to see if there were any Spanish-speaking Morisco at hand to read them for me; nor was there any great difficulty in finding such an interpreter, for even had I sought one for an older and better language I should have found him.
With this idea I pressed him to read the beginning, and doing so, turning the Arabic offhand into Castilian, he told me it meant, "History of Don Quixote of La Mancha, written by Cide Hamete Benengeli, an Arab historian." It required great caution to hide the joy I felt when the title of the book reached my ears, and snatching it from the silk mercer, I bought all the papers and pamphlets from the boy for half a real; and if he had had his wits about him and had known how eager I was for them, he might have safely calculated on making more than six reals by the bargain.
This second cousin was a Middlemarch mercer of polite manners and superfluous aspirates.
The Middlemarch mercer waited for an opportunity of engaging Mr.
They felt our skin, much in the same way that a silk mercer would handle a remarkably fine piece of satin; and some of them went so far in their investigation as to apply the olfactory organ.