sweater

Etymology

From Middle English swetere, equivalent to sweat + -er.

noun

1. A knitted jacket or jersey, usually of thick wool, worn by athletes before or after exercise.
2. (US) A similar garment worn for warmth.
   We could slip away / Wouldn't that be better? / Me with nothing to say / And you in your autumn sweater 1997, “Autumn Sweater”, in I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, performed by Yo La Tengo
3. One who sweats (produces sweat).
   The cardiologist who administered Alex's exercise stress test on August 21 observed during that test that Alex was a profuse sweater. 2007, John T. James, A Sea of Broken Hearts: Patient Rights in a Dangerous Profit-Driven Health Care System, page 29
4. One who or that which causes to sweat.
   We learn of the cruelty of some school or child-factory from journalists; we learn it from inspectors, we learn it from doctors, we learn it even from shame-stricken schoolmasters and repentant sweaters; but we never learn it from the children; we never learn it from the victims. 1906, Chesterton, Charles Dickens, chapter 3
5. A diaphoretic remedy.
6. (historical) An exploitative middleman who subcontracted piece work in the tailoring trade.
   Coordinate term: sweatee
   If the piecework system had not existed there never would have been any sweatees. The men who are sweaters, I am sorry to say, are men who formerly belonged to our union. 1894, New York (State) Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration, Annual Report (volumes 7-8, page 158)
7. (archaic) One who sweats coins, i.e. removes small portions by shaking them.
8. (UK, obsolete) A London street ruffian in Queen Anne's time who prodded weak passengers with his sword-point.

verb

1. (transitive) To dress in a sweater.