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composing stick

noun Printing.
  1. a portable, adjustable, usually metal tray that the compositor holds in one hand while placing in it type gathered with the other hand.
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Origin of composing stick

First recorded in 1670–80
Also called job stick.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for composing stick

Historical Examples of composing stick

  • "Take this composing-stick and let me see whether you are competent or not," said Keimer.

    The Printer Boy.

    William M. Thayer

  • Being expert with the composing-stick, he was readily engaged at good wages by his old employer, Keimer.

    Benjamin Franklin

    John Torrey Morse, Jr.

  • A man comes along with a composing-stick in his pocket and starts a newspaper.

    The World on Wheels and Other Sketches

    Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin) Taylor

  • When the composing-stick has been filled, it is emptied into the galley, which is a flat board, partly surrounded with a rim.

  • The whole process is completed by setting up the types in a printer's composing-stick, and tying them up with packthread.

British Dictionary definitions for composing stick

composing stick

noun
  1. printing a metal holder of adjustable width in which a compositor sets a line of type at a time by hand; now rarely used
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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