stabber n
1 Harpoon; a long pole with nail in end used by boy to spear fish in shallow water.
T 393/4-67 An' the next thing I know I see him comin' down the stage with his stabber. We call it a stabber, seal stabber-harpoon. M 69-14 To stab these flat fish we used a stabber made simply by getting a long pole and attaching a large sharpened four-inch nail to one end.
2 Comb stabber pole: iron-shod pole used to push loose pans of ice away from a sealing vessel (1925 Dial Notes v, 343). Also attrib.
1924 ENGLAND 186 'If dis un get froze in yere, solid, de divil himself couldn't get us out. We might bide a fartnight in dis jam.' . . All hands looked alive. Masses of men grabbed 'starber' [stabber] poles and tumbled over the rails from the barricade. Ibid 189 Yelling, the stabber-pole crew come running back and fall to work.
