Fullering

[foo l-er] /ˈfʊl ər/

noun
1.
a half-round hammer used for grooving and spreading iron.
2.
a tool or part of a die for reducing the sectional area of a piece of work.
3.
a groove running along the flat of a sword blade.
verb (used with object)
4.
to reduce the sectional area of (a piece of metal) with a fuller or fullers.
/ˈfʊlə/
noun
1.
a person who fulls cloth for his living
/ˈfʊlə/
noun
1.
Also called fullering tool. a tool for forging a groove
2.
a tool for caulking a riveted joint
verb
3.
(transitive) to forge (a groove) or caulk (a riveted joint) with a fuller
/ˈfʊlə/
noun
1.
(Richard) Buckminster. 1895–1983, US architect and engineer: developed the geodesic dome
2.
Roy (Broadbent). 1912–91, British poet and writer, whose collections include The Middle of a War (1942) and A Lost Season (1944), both of which are concerned with World War II, Epitaphs and Occasions (1949), and Available for Dreams (1989)
3.
Thomas. 1608–61, English clergyman and antiquarian; author of The Worthies of England (1662)
n.

“one who fulls cloth,” Old English fullere, from Latin fullo “fuller” (see foil (v.)). The substance called fuller’s earth (silicate of alumina) is first recorded 1520s, so called because it was used in cleansing cloth.

The word “full” is from the Anglo-Saxon fullian, meaning “to whiten.” To full is to press or scour cloth in a mill. This art is one of great antiquity. Mention is made of “fuller’s soap” (Mal. 3:2), and of “the fuller’s field” (2 Kings 18:17). At his transfiguration our Lord’s rainment is said to have been white “so as no fuller on earth could white them” (Mark 9:3). En-rogel (q.v.), meaning literally “foot-fountain,” has been interpreted as the “fuller’s fountain,” because there the fullers trod the cloth with their feet.