sander

sand +‎ -er

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsændɚ/

sander (plural sanders)

1. A person employed to sand wood.
2. A machine to mechanize the process of sanding.
3. (rail transport) A device which spreads sand on the rails in wet, snowy, icy, slippery conditions to improve traction.
   • 1949 November and December, K. Longbottom, “By Goods Train to Gweedore”, in Railway Magazine, page 356:

     Grass growing on the track made the running far from easy, and only frequent use of the sanders enabled us to breast the 1 in 50 gradients between Letterkenny and Kilmacrenon [sic].

   • 2021 November 17, Greg Morse, “Network News: Background: causes and effects of low adhesion and wheelslide”, in RAIL, number 944, pages 8–9:

     Traditionally, sand was used to aid grip, being released onto the track in front of the wheels from a special 'sandbox'. However, the Slough accident led to two trials on the use of train-borne sanders to aid braking: [...] Now, all new stock is fitted with automatic sanders, as have most of the pre-1994 units still running.

4. (historical) A small device resembling a salt shaker but containing sand that was shaken over a document to remove excess ink.

• orbital sander
• random orbital sander
• belt sander
• strip sander

• (sense 3) sanding gear

• Anders, Andres, Dranes, Naders, Rendas, Snader, dearns, denars, redans, resand, sandre, snared

From Old Norse sannr, from Proto-Germanic *sanþaz.

sander

1. true, real

• Swedish: sann