caster
- a person or thing that casts.
- a small wheel on a swivel, set under a piece of furniture, a machine, etc., to facilitate moving it.
- a bottle or cruet for holding a condiment.
- a stand containing a set of such bottles.
- a metal container for sugar, pepper, etc., having a perforated top to permit sprinkling; dredger; muffineer.
- Automotive. the angle that the kingpin makes with the vertical. Automobiles are usually designed with the upper end of the kingpin inclined rearward (positive caster) for improved directional stability.
- (of a wheel) to swivel freely in a horizontal plane.
Origin of caster
caste
- Sociology.
- an endogamous and hereditary social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position, etc., and having mores distinguishing it from other such groups.
- any rigid system of social distinctions.
- Hinduism. any of the social divisions into which Hindu society is traditionally divided, each caste having its own privileges and limitations, transferred by inheritance from one generation to the next; jati.Compare class(def 13).
- any class or group of society sharing common cultural features: low caste; high caste.
- social position conferred upon one by a caste system: to lose caste.
- Entomology. one of the distinct forms among polymorphous social insects, performing a specialized function in the colony, as a queen, worker or soldier.
- of, relating to, or characterized by caste: a caste society; a caste system; a caste structure.
Origin of caste
Examples from the Web for caster
Contemporary Examples
Then that brought up the question of sentience: Is this Will Caster?
How ‘Transcendence’ Director Wally Pfister Became Christopher Nolan’s Secret WeaponAndrew Romano
April 17, 2014
However, she does not downplay the amount of dark clothes and black eyeliner that are characteristic of her Caster ways.
‘Beautiful Creatures’: 14 Notable Differences From the Book to the ScreenJean Trinh
February 15, 2013
Historical Examples
I shall go back and refute that common scoffer, that caster of doubts.
The Burning SpearJohn Galsworthy
Happily my bust is out of hand, and the caster (not B. this time) is hard at work on it.
The Eternal CityHall Caine
His opponent, still with his secretive smile, took up the caster.
In Kings' BywaysStanley J. Weyman
The chief Latin contributions are -Chester, -cester, -caster, Lat.
The Romance of NamesErnest Weekley
One of these is the composing machine, or keyboard, the other the caster, or type-founder.
The Building of a BookVarious
caster
- a person or thing that casts
- Also: castor a bottle with a perforated top for sprinkling sugar, etc, or a stand containing such bottles
- Also: castor a small wheel mounted on a swivel so that the wheel tends to turn into its plane of rotation
caste
- any social class or system based on such distinctions as heredity, rank, wealth, profession, etc
- the position conferred by such a system
- entomol any of various types of specialized individual, such as the worker, in social insects (hive bees, ants, etc)
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for caster
n.1
"person or thing that casts," late 14c. (also sometimes castor), agent noun from cast (v.). Meaning "pepper shaker, small perforated container" is from 1670s, on notion of "throwing."
n.2
"wheel and swivel attached to furniture," 1748, agent noun from cast (v.) in the old sense of "turn." Also sometimes castor.
caste
n.
1550s, "a race of men," from Latin castus "chaste," from castus "cut off, separated; pure" (via notion of "cut off" from faults), past participle of carere "to be cut off from" (and related to castration), from PIE *kas-to-, from root *kes- "to cut" (cf. Latin cassus "empty, void"). Originally spelled cast in English and later often merged with cast (n.) in its secondary sense "sort, kind, style."
Application to Hindu social groups was picked up by English in India 1610s from Portuguese casta "breed, race, caste," earlier casta raça, "unmixed race," from the same Latin word. The current spelling of of the English word is from this reborrowing. Caste system is first recorded 1840.
caste
- A specialized group carrying out a specific function within a colony of social insects. For example, in an ant colony, members of the caste of workers forage for food outside the colony or tend eggs and larvae, while the members of the caste of soldiers, often larger with stronger jaws, are responsible for defense of the colony.
caste
One of the four hereditary social divisions in Hinduism. Members of any one caste are restricted in their choice of occupation and may have only limited association with members of other castes.