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  • weaver
    weaver
    noun
    a person who weaves.
  • Weaver
    Weaver
    noun
    James Baird, 1833–1912, U.S. politician: congressman 1879–81, 1885–89.
Synonyms

weaver

1 American  
[wee-ver] / ˈwi vər /

noun

  • weavers
    plural
  1. a person who weaves.

  2. a person whose occupation is weaving.

  3. a weaverbird.


Weaver 2 American  
[wee-ver] / ˈwi vər /

noun

  1. James Baird, 1833–1912, U.S. politician: congressman 1879–81, 1885–89.

  2. Robert Clifton, 1907–97, U.S. economist and government official: first Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 1966–68.


weaver British  
/ ˈwiːvə /

noun

  1. a person who weaves, esp as a means of livelihood

  2. short for weaverbird

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of weaver

First recorded in 1325–75, weaver is from the Middle English word wevere. See weave, -er 1


Explanation

A person who makes fabric by weaving fiber together is a weaver. Most weavers use a loom, a device that holds the threads tightly as they're being woven. A craft weaver works by hand, weaving without a loom, but most weavers use either a hand loom or a power loom. This more mechanized type of loom was invented in the 1780s, and it made the work less physically taxing for weavers. The Proto-Indo-European root of weaver is also the source of the Sanskrit word ubhnati, "he laces together" and the Greek word hyphe, or "web."

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing weaver

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

"It hurts me to see this," weaver Bashir Ahmad, 78, told AFP.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

Researchers from several South American institutions have identified a new species of crevice weaver spider, expanding what scientists know about the Pikelinia genus.

From Science Daily ● May 1, 2026

A tour of East Coast craft-making wouldn’t be complete without a trip to a weaver, though Helena Hernmarck of Ridgefield, Conn., is more of a “tapestry artist.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025

Govan had recently flown in from Tilburg in the Netherlands, where he visited the TextielMuseum’s TextielLab with interdisciplinary artist and weaver Sarah Rosalena.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2025

“Okay. It’s just...Athena said that creating this braided structure would be impossible for any weaver, even her. So if you don’t think you can—” “Athena said that?”

From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan

Weaver and his team looked at other recent races in New York state.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

Notre Dame got its touchdown on its opening possession, on a 50-yard pass from Skinner to Mica Weaver.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026

In the spring of 2025, his personal attorney and political adviser Tim Parlatore was involved in efforts to polygraph Patrick Weaver, the secretary’s senior adviser.

From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026

It includes stars from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s team, including Tascha Van Auken, who led the campaign’s field operation, and Cea Weaver, his housing guru.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

Weaver brought the blind request to Raymond Fosdick, disguised as a grant application “for expediting the construction of the giant cyclotron, and for the purchase of certain associated equipment.”

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

The streets are also named for these weavers of words, so they’re overhead and underfoot.

From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026

Because “the demand for woven cloth could fluctuate wildly,” she writes, “as quickly as weavers remembered the good wages, memories of periods of acute hardship came flooding back.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025

Through November, the museum features an open-air spider pavilion, a ticketed exhibit that allows visitors to walk amid hundreds of spiders known as orb weavers and their intricate webs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2025

An influx of cheaper machine-made habesha kemis from China years ago undercut Ethiopia's traditional weavers.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2025

The two were the patrons of handicrafts, the arts which along with agriculture are the support of civilization; he the protector of the smiths as she of the weavers.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

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