OPENER (opener)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: opener   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does opener mean? 

• OPENER (noun)
  The noun OPENER has 3 senses:

1. the first event in a series

2. a person who unfastens or unwraps or opens

3. a hand tool used for opening sealed containers (bottles or cans)

  Familiarity information: OPENER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OPENER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The first event in a series

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

the season's opener was a game against the Yankees

Hypernyms ("opener" is a kind of...):

start (the beginning of anything)

Derivation:

open (begin or set in action, of meetings, speeches, recitals, etc.)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who unfastens or unwraps or opens

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

opener; undoer; unfastener; untier

Context example:

children are talented undoers of their shoelaces

Hypernyms ("opener" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Derivation:

open (cause to open or to become open)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A hand tool used for opening sealed containers (bottles or cans)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("opener" is a kind of...):

hand tool (a tool used with workers' hands)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "opener"):

bottle opener (an opener for removing caps or corks from bottles)

can opener; tin opener (a device for cutting cans open)

latchstring (opener consisting of a string that can be passed through a hole in a door for raising the latch from outside)

Derivation:

open (cause to open or to become open)

 Context examples 

Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) Aids or devices that you usually use for any of these activities - Jar opener (for jars previously opened).

(HAQ-DI - Aids or Devices - Jar Opener (Jars Previously Opened), NCI Thesaurus)

Grief is the best opener of some hearts, and Jo's was nearly ready for the bag.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Why, a Yankee crook would be into that with a can-opener.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was the site of an old encampment, with several empty Chicago meat tins, a bottle labeled "Brandy," a broken tin-opener, and a quantity of other travelers' debris.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A dream of their coming in with Dora; of the pew-opener arranging us, like a drill-sergeant, before the altar rails; of my wondering, even then, why pew-openers must always be the most disagreeable females procurable, and whether there is any religious dread of a disastrous infection of good-humour which renders it indispensable to set those vessels of vinegar upon the road to Heaven.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)