📏 A measuring tool 🪨 A crushing machine 🧪 A coating chemical 🍏 A sorting device

sizer

8.6

A chemical applied to fabric or paper to stop it soaking up water

noun
/ˈsaɪzər/

Specialized

: apresto

To improve the finish of the paper, the manufacturer added a sizer to reduce its absorbency.

Examples

Before painting, she applied a sizer to the canvas to prevent the paint from soaking in.
The tailor used a special sizer to ensure the fabric would not absorb too much dye.
The cups were prepared so that a cortical rim of bone was maintained and so that one-third of the implant sizer could fit inside each cup when it was placed perpendicular to the cups.

Academic text (2015)
Following the resection of the distal surface of the trapezium and the base of the first metacarpal bone with a sagittal saw, the implant sizer was placed flat on the surface of the trapezium.

Academic text (2015)

Synonyms

sizing

vssizer

Specialized

1 8.2

A sticky substance applied to cloth or paper to fill small holes and make them stiffer

is used to mainly reduce absorbency rather than primarily to stiffen

fabric stiffener

vssizer

1 6.2

Something you put on cloth to make it stiff

focuses on reducing absorbency rather than mainly making material stiff

Surface Forms

sizer singular

sizers plural

Morphology

sizer = size (opaque) = size + er

The word is formally size + -er, but the relevant verb sense of 'size' is technical and not the common meaning most learners know.

Etymology

Sizer comes from the word size, which also meant a paste or coating used on cloth and paper to make it less absorbent, and the ending -er meaning 'one who' or 'that which'. So a sizer can be the chemical or substance used to 'size' a surface and make it easier to print or dye.