laster

1 of 2

noun (1)

last·​er ˈla-stər 

plural lasters

: someone or something that lasts for a notably long time

Climbing the bank, Payson studied the storm enveloping the western sky. It looked like a laster …

—Maurice Kildare

The marriage has been a long laster by Hollywood standards.

—David Collins

laster

2 of 2

noun (2)

plural lasters

1

: a worker who stretches shoe uppers around lasts : an operator of a lasting machine

Marciano used to run lunch down to his father, Pierino, a laster at a nearby shoe factory …

—William Nack

2

: a machine used for attaching shoe uppers to soles

Between 1883 when the original shoe laster was patented and 1891, [Jan Ernst] Matzeliger would receive a total of five patents on his inventions. The laster was refined over the years to a point where it could adjust a shoe, arrange the leather over the sole, drive in the nails and deliver the finished product—all in one minute's time.

—Michigan Chronicle

Word History

First Known Use

Noun (1)

1547, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1857, in the meaning defined at sense 1