rigger

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪɡə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪɡɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophones: rigor, rigour
• Rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ)

From rig +‎ -er.

rigger (plural riggers)

1. One who rigs or dresses; as:
   1. One whose occupation is to fit the rigging of a ship or of a counterweight system.
      • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

        So far there was not a hitch. The workpeople, to be sure — riggers and what not — were most annoyingly slow; but time cured that. It was the crew that troubled me.

   2. One whose occupation is to lift and move large and heavy objects (such as industrial machinery) with the help of cables, hoists, and other equipment.
      • 1998, Glen Ballou, Handbook for Sound Engineers: The New Audio Cyclopedia, page 1250:

        What if the rigger (the person who anchors the grids to the building ceiling) mishangs a single cable?

   3. (animation) One whose occupation is to outfit a computer model with controls for animation.
      • 2012, Verónica Orvalho, Pedro Bastos, Frederic Parke, Bruno Oliveira, Xenxo Alvarez, “A Facial Rigging Survey: State of the Art Report”, in EUROGRAPHICS:

        It is common that after the rig is created an animator asks the rigger to create new controls, because the character needs to support new poses or simply needs to look better.

2. One who rigs or manipulates (an election, etc).
   • 1988, Australian Parliament, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), House of Representatives:

     The real riggers of electoral boundaries in New South Wales were those who got loose after 1965. When the boys from George Street and Ash Street got loose there was a majority in the Parliament. That is when there was a redistribution  […]

   • 2018, Cliff Edogun, The Rude Awakening: Nigerian Millennials Take Their Country by Storm., AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

     An election rigger who assumes illegitimate political power would be primarily motivated to spread their corrosive toxins across the political system, thus rendering institutions of government dysfunctional and convoluted.

3. A part of a rowing boat's equipment used to provide leverage for a rowing blade or oar around a fixed fulcrum.
4. (in combination) A ship with a certain type of rigging.
5. A cylindrical pulley or drum in machinery.
6. (New Zealand) A plastic bottle of beer, typically between 1 L to 2.5 L volume.
7. A long, slender, pointed sable paintbrush for making fine lines, etc.; said to be so called from its use for drawing the lines of the rigging of ships.
8. (BDSM) A person who applies functional or artistic rope bondage to another person's body.

   Coordinate term: rope bunny

Abbreviation

rigger (plural riggers)

1. (paraskiing) Ellipsis of outrigger.

rigger m

1. indefinite plural of rigg

rigger

1. present of rigge