yielder

From Middle English yeldere, ȝelder, ȝeldere, continuing (with change of suffix) Old English ġylda, ġilda (“one who pays, yielder”), from Proto-West Germanic *geldō (“payer”). Equivalent to yield +‎ -er.

yielder (plural yielders)

1. Someone or something that yields a crop or other product.
   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XIX, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the third (The Rally), page 243:

     Out of the whole ninety-five [cows] there were eight in particular […] who, though the teats of one or two were as hard as carrots, gave down to her with a readiness that made her work on them a mere touch of the fingers. Knowing, however, the dairyman’s wish, she endeavoured conscientiously to take the animals just as they came, excepting the very hard yielders which she could not yet manage.

   • 1903, Charles William Burkett et al., Agriculture for Beginners‎:

     Just as with the Irish potato, it is important to know how good a yielder you are planting.

   • 1915, Australia Department of External Affairs, Wheat Growing in Australia‎:

     This variety is a very heavy yielder, has good drought-resistant qualities, and withstands wind and weather so well that it may be said to be storm-proof.

2. Someone or something that yields, or gives way.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong,
     Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;
     For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;
     Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch.

   • 1909, Robert Fitzgerald, The Statesmen Snowbound‎:

     I am a modest man, sir, and hesitate to talk about myself even among friends; but since you all insist, there is nothing for me to do but yield as gracefully as I may--and as a yielder I glitter in the front rank.

• reedily