sacker

• Rhymes: -ækə(r)

sack +‎ -er

sacker (plural sackers)

1. A person who sacks or plunders.
   • 1578, Thomas Cooper, Thesaurus linguæ Romanæ & Britannicæ, London: Henry Denham,

     Direptor & vexator vrbis. Cicer[o]. A spoy[l]er and sacker of a citie.

   • 1743, Henry Fielding, The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great (Miscellanies, Volume 3), London: A. Millar, Book 1, Chapter 13, p. 80,

     Do not some by Honour mean Good-Nature and Humanity, which weak Minds call Virtues? How then! Must we deny it to the Great, the Brave, the Noble, to the Sackers of Towns, the Plunderers of Provinces, and the Conquerors of Kingdoms? Were not these Men of Honour?

   • 1883, Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers (translators), The Iliad of Homer, London: Macmillan, Book 10, p. 194,

     […] Tydeus’ son and Odysseus the sacker of cities cut Dolon off from the host, and ever pursued hard after him.

   • 1980, Don DeLillo and Sue Buck (as Cleo Birdwell), Amazons, New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Chapter 4, p. 70,

     I think he liked standing over me. It is sort of the warrior’s view. The sacker and plunderer.

2. A person who fills or makes sacks or bags.
   • 1929, P. D. Peterson, Through the Black Hills and Bad Lands of South Dakota, Pierre, SD: J. Fred Olander, Chapter 5 “Cement Plant,” p. 41,

     There are two men, known as sackers who, with the use of machinery, can fill 15,000 to 20,000 sacks a day.

   • 2012, Ross Ramsey, “Life of a Texas Lawmaker: Lousy Pay, Great Benefits” The Texas Tribune, 13 April, 2012,

     Know a grocery sacker with a pension like that?

3. A machine or device for filling sacks.
   • 1950, E. D. Gordon and W. M. Hurst, Artificial Drying of Forage Crops, Washington: DC, United States Department of Agriculture, Circular No. 443, p. 20,

     The feeder conveys the chopped alfalfa to the drying-drum—from the drum the dried forage is conveyed through one or more cooling cyclones to a hammer mill—then through one or more cyclones for further cooling and finally to a sacker.

4. A person who sacks or fires (dismisses someone from a job or position).
   • 2014, Nick Harris, “His impoverished club haven't known the glory days for 27 years but...” 18 January, 2014,

     Romanov was a serial sacker of managers, picked the team himself at times from Vilnius […]

   • 2017, Joe Murphy, “Jeremy Corbyn: Glastonbury’s ‘hero of peace’ prepares to do battle with own Labour ranks to get his way” London Evening Standard, 30 June, 2017,

     In just six days, Labour’s leader has gone from chino-clad hero of the peace and love brigade to intolerant sacker of pro-Europeans in his ranks.

5. (baseball, softball) A baseman (player positioned at or near a base).
   • 1910, George Randolph Chester, The Early Bird, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, Chapter 15,

     The ball crossed the base before he did, but it bounded between the third sacker’s feet, and score two was marked up for Hollis Creek, with nobody out!

   • 1952, Bernard Malamud, The Natural, New York: Time Reading Program, 1966, “Batter Up!” p. 56,

     About forty years ago Pop was the third sacker for the old Sox when they got into their first World Series after twenty years.

   • 2009, John H. Ritter, New York: Philomel, Chapter 35, p. 226,

     Reinspired, he sprang from the dugout and ran out to second base so quickly, the Chicago second sacker, Cal McVey, was still walking in from shallow right field.

6. (American football) A player who sacks (tackles the offensive quarterback behind the line of scrimmage before he is able to throw a pass).
   • 2017, Bob Wojnowski, “Wojo: Patriots hand Lions cold glimpse of reality,” The Detroit News, 26 August, 2017,

     The loss of last year’s leading sacker, Kerry Hyder Jr., for the season with an Achilles injury is still problematic.

sacker (plural sackers)

1. Alternative form of saker (cannon)

• ackers, crakes, creaks, screak