noun
- Workers, especially children or young women, employed in textile mills to remove full bobbins of thread or yarn and replace them with empty ones.
Usage: historical; chiefly North American; often used in plural
Examples
- In the 19th century, doffers were a common sight in New England cotton mills.
- Young doffers worked long hours replacing bobbins in the spinning frames.
- The mill employed dozens of doffers, many of whom were children under twelve.
- Doffers earned modest wages compared to other mill workers.
- Historical accounts describe the difficult working conditions faced by doffers in industrial textile factories.