fletcher

plural fletchers

1. One who fletches or feathers arrows.

   An arrow maker is a fletcher, or, more exactly, one who feathers arrows.

   1955, “Sticks and Strings (A pot-pourri on bow and arrows from an article in "Michigan Conservation")”, in The Bowhunter, number 5, page 29

   3 more examples

   This thing, if a man take not hede on, he may chaunce have cauſe to ſay ſo of his fletcher, as in dreſſinge of meate is commonlye ſayde of cookes: and that is, that God ſendeth us good feathers, but the devill noughtye fletchers.

   1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC, book 2, page 148

   In order that distant countries should be furnished with bowyers, fletchers, and arrow head makers, any of those workmen, not being freemen of London, might be sent by the appointment of the king's council, the lord chancellor, lord privy seal, or one of them, to inhabit the city, borough or town within the realm that was destitute of such artificers.

   1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 38

   Besides the bowyers and fletchers who made the bows and arrows, others were employed to keep them in repair: the pay of these men was sixpence a-day. Among the Tolls at Carlton Ride is the Account of the Clerk of the Privy Wardrobe, for armour, shot, &c., from 1372 to 1374; where, among many curious entries, occurs one “for the wages of two fletchers, each at vid. a-day, for going in the king's ships, and for the keeping and mending of bows and arrows in the said voyage".

   1859, “The Arms, Armour and Military Usages of the Fourteenth Century”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 206, page 14

2. A device to assist in fletching or feathering arrows.

   I don't like using a fletcher, the single feather ones are too slow, and the three feather ones inaccurate.

   1940, Archery News, volumes 19-27, page 35

   3 more examples

   A fletcher that mechanically takes care of gluing feathers to arrow shafts is a great help in either making or repairing arrows.

   1941, School Shop, volume 1, page 12

   Fletching jigs are available either as a single fletch unit or as a multi-fletcher, which can fletch up to six arrows at once.

   2014, Brian J. Sorrells, Guide to the Longbow: Tips, Advice, and History for Target Shooting and Hunting

   A fletcher is the tool that actually holds the arrow and sets the vane or feather in place while it is being glued.

   1992, by Randolph J. Hempton, Michigan Out-of-doors, volume 46, page 72

3. Generally, a manufacturer of bows and arrows.

   […] some of the best bows were made by Elven fletchers in the nearby woods to the east of the city.

   2012, Shaun Robinson, A Knights Realm: Forsaken Rise, page 13

   3 more examples

   Robert Frankham of Colchester, fletcher, or maker of bows and arrowy, did, by his will, dated the 20th of July, 1577, give a yearly rent-charge of thirteen shillings and four-pence out of a tenement and six acres of land in West Bergholt, for ever;

   1810, The history and antiquities of the borough of Colchester, in the County of Essex

   Very speedily the Fletcher arrived. It was his trade, the making of bows and arrows, and the marks of the various makers were as well known to him as the marks on his own.

   1853, “A Narrative of Border Warfare”, in The United Service Magazine, page 402

   In the spring of 1415 Nicholas Mynot was ordered by an impatient Henry to take on another dozen fletchers at the Tower armoury workshop to step up production of the bows and arrows needed in France

   2012, Nigel Jones, Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London, page 88

4. UKdateddialectalpossiblyA weir or dam.

   They [some boards] had been washed away from the fletcher by the flood.

   1896 September 5, Evesham Journal, quoted in the English Dialect Dictionary

   2 more examples

   […] the defendants cut down and lowered, and kept and continued so cut down and lowered, a part of the bank of the said river, situate and being between the mill of the defendants and the mill of the plaintiff, and on a part of the said bank so lowered, built and erected, and kept and continued so built and erected, a certain weir or fletcher, and by that means caused large quantities of the water of the said river, which otherwise would, and always before had, and still of right ought to have flowed to and through the plaintiff's mill, to flow in a new course or channel, […] and the said weir or fletcher, built and erected there by the defendant Inge in the month of June 1822; […]

   1831, Liggins v. Inge, T. T. 1831 (court case), in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the English Courts (1832), page 289

   You saw the river as you came along. Just above that bridge where you crossed there is a fletcher - weir, as some call them. Diver [a dog] used to cross the stream regular by running over the fletcher, and the other dogs picked up the trick from him.

   1902, The Windsor Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women, page 451

plural Fletchers

1. countableuncountableA surname originating as an occupation, from the profession of fletcher.
2. countableuncountableA male given name transferred from the surname.

   Two children who were killed in an attack on a Catholic school in Minneapolis have been identified by their parents as Harper Moyski, a "joyful" big sister, and Fletcher Merkel, who loved "any sport that he was allowed to play".

   2025 August 29, Max Matza, “A 'joyful' girl and a boy who loved sports - Victims in Minneapolis shooting identified”, in BBC, archived from the original on 29 Aug 2025

3. A number of places in the United States:
   1. countableuncountableA ghost town in California.
   2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in McLean County, Illinois.
   3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Fulton County, Indiana.
   4. countableuncountableA town in Henderson County, North Carolina.
   5. countableuncountableA village in Miami County, Ohio.
   6. countableuncountableA town in Comanche County, Oklahoma.
   7. countableuncountableA town in Franklin County, Vermont.
   8. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Madison County, Virginia.
   9. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Jackson County, West Virginia.
4. countableuncountableA farming community in Chatham-Kent, south-western Ontario, Canada.
5. countableuncountableAn outer western suburb of Newcastle in the City of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.