strouter n also stouter OED stouter (Nfld: 1792), DC stouter Nfld (1779-); cp LONGER, based on long; cp EDD strout v 2: strouter 'support in the side of a wagon' W Do So; strut v 2: strouter sb 'a strut' W Do So for sense 1.
1 One of several heavy posts placed vertically to support and strengthen the head of a fishing stage or wharf; cp SHORE2.
[1777] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 234 Part of the people were at work on the stage, and the rest went up the bay, cut some stouters, posts, shores, etc. 1792 ibid Gloss i, xv Stouters, strong shores, which are placed round the head of a stage or wharf, to prevent them from being damaged by ships or boats. 1819 ANSPACH 430 The place where the operation of curing the codfish is performed, is a stage or covered platform erected on the shore, with one end projecting over the water, which is called the stage-head, and which is fortified with stouters. 1895 J A Folklore viii, 31 ~s. The outside piles of a wharf, which are larger and stronger than the inner ones, which are called shores. 1937 DEVINE 50 ~s. The perpendicular posts at the front end of a fishing stage, jammed firmly into the sea bottom, and having rails nailed across to make the ladder for getting into and out of boats. 1973 Evening Telegram 25 Oct, p. 3 You could hear a tin can honking against the strouters or the rocks down there in the landwash. 1975 BUTLER 61 For the shores [of a wharf] there'd be strouters. They'd be called strouters and they'd be a little larger, probably seven or eight inches in diameter.
2 Fence post (1925 Dial Notes v, 344).
3 Comb strouter post: see sense 2 above (1914 Cadet 7).
