yawlers

Noun

yawler (plural yawlers)

1. One who sails a yawl.
   • The Englishman, having had his yacht rammed by a yawler which immediately began to careen, boarded the doomed vessel, clubbed the senses, if not the life, out of a crew of mutineering sailors (a performance that is not often encountered outside of highly adventurous narratives of the sea), and...1911, The Canadian Magazine - Volume 36, page 202
2. A young boy or old man who provides support to an oceangoing fishing boat, guiding the jolly boat to shore, performing simple maintenance of the jolly boat, bringing provisions, etc.
   • At Newlyn each lubber kept a 4-oared boat at anchor, but at Mousehole 3-oared jolly-boats were preferred. These craft were left in charge of a "yawler," a lad aged from 10 to 14, who was paid 1s. 6d. a week (fig. 3, inset).1955, World Fishing - Volume 4, page 42
3. A juvenile herring.
   • Fifty years ago Gannets in twos and threes were not infrequently seen on Breydon, whither they went and fished for "yawlers" (half-grown herrings), that were plentiful there in those deep-water days.1905, Arthur Henry Patterson, Nature in Eastern Norfolk, page 168
4. One who yawls (howls).
   • A fellow has smuggled in a cat, a famous yawler, and right in the midst of your most solemn appeal, it gives a genuine, border-ruffian screech.1856, Amherst College Magazine - Volume 4, Issues 1-7, page 235