paternoster

plural paternosters

1. ChristianityThe Lord's Prayer, especially in a Roman Catholic context.

   The friar had said his paternosters duly

   c. 1920, John Crowe Ransom, Necrological

2. A slow, continuously moving lift or elevator consisting of a loop of open-fronted cabins running the height of a building.
3. architectureA bead-like ornament in mouldings.
4. fishingA tackle rig with a heavy sinker at the end of the line, and one or more hooks on traces at right angles spaced above the sinker.

   PATERNOSTER TWIN This rig is slightly more complicated than the single paternoster, however this rig has the added advantage of having two hooks, these can be different sizes and be baited with different baits.

   2016, D[avid] A. Weaver, Sea Angling Rig Book, rev. edition, [s.l.]: M. P. Dawn Publications

   2 more examples

   A paternoster is any style of hook rig where the hook(s) are on droppers above a fixed sinker. One or two hooks are used on a paternoster rig. The droppers are tied using dropper loops tied directly in the line. The twisted dropper is an ideal knot as it stands out at right angles to the line.

   2011, Jamin Forbes, “Tackle”, in Cod Cod Cod, Croydon, Vic.: Australian Fishing Network, →ISBN, page 56

   In plain terms, the paternoster is a rig with the weight at the bottom and hook traces (sometimes called snoods by sea anglers) attached above in fixed positions. Besides a tidy presentation, this arrangement allows the sea angler to try more than one bait and you'll often find paternosters with two hooks (or even three or four). Effectively this allows us to hedge our bets and try more baits (which could be the same or different types), thereby increasing the scent and attraction.

   2012, Peter Kaminsky, Greg Schwipps, Dominic Garnett, Fishing for Dummies, UK edition, Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN

5. archaicChristianityA string of beads used in counting prayers that are said.
6. archaicChristianityEvery eleventh bead in a rosary, at which, while counting the beads, the Lord's Prayer is to be repeated.

   Holonyms: rosary; prayer beads

7. archaicChristianityA medieval artisan who crafted rosary beads or prayer nuts.
8. archaicA patent medicine, so named because salesmen would pray the Lord's Prayer over it before selling it.

   Near-synonyms: nostrum, nostrum remedium

   Synonyms: nostrum, nostrum remedium

present singular third person paternosters · participle present paternostering · participle past paternostered · past paternostered

1. transitivefishingTo try to catch (fish, etc.) with a paternoster rig.

plural Paternosters

1. alternativeAlternative form of paternoster (“Lord's Prayer”).

   1 more example

   If Burd Ellen had gone “widishins" round the church, she would, I think, have used the best homoeopathic specific against the Elf-King's power; for "to go widishins" was the chief element in elfin practices, and if mortals wished to resist or unspell elf-craft, they, too, had "to go widershins," or they had to repeat the Paternoster backwards, which came to the same thing, or do something else contrariwise.

   1891 January 3, I. Gollancz, “Widishins”, in The Academy, London, page 14, column 3

2. A surname.