artificer

[ahr-tif-uh-ser]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR artificer ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who is skillful or clever in devising ways of making things; inventor.

a skillful or artistic worker; craftsperson.

Origin of artificer

1350–1400; Middle English < Anglo-French artificer, perhaps < Medieval Latin artificiārius; see artifice, -er²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for artificer

professional, builder, carpenter, craftsman, operator, worker, machinist, help, master, artisan, laborer, helper, aide, roustabout, employee, operative, handicraftsman, maker, manufacturer, mechanic

Examples from the Web for artificer

Historical Examples of artificer

My purpose was to speak somewhat, as needs must be, of the artificer, the author of this book.
Albert Durer
T. Sturge Moore
To what Artificer, is not Picture, a great pleasure and Commoditie?
The Mathematicall Praeface to Elements of Geometrie of Euclid of Megara
John Dee
The drops of dew which the artificer had sprinkled on the flowers were diamonds.
Burlesques
William Makepeace Thackeray
The labours of the husbandman and the artificer she has forborne.
Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber
James Aitken Wylie
You thought the Artificer had designed him for a priest of the church.
The Sleuth of St. James's Square
Melville Davisson Post

British Dictionary definitions for artificer

artificer

noun

a skilled craftsman

a clever or inventive designer

a serviceman trained in mechanics

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for artificer

late 14c., "one who makes by art or skill," agent noun from artifice. Military sense dates from 1758.