What does fullery mean?
Fullery is a rare noun for a tannery, a workplace where animal hides are treated with tannins to make leather. Its apparent connection with “full” can be misleading to modern readers: in the related vocabulary of fuller and fulling, cloth was cleansed, beaten, and thickened, while a fullery specifically refers to leather processing. The word is now chiefly encountered in historical, architectural, industrial, and local-history contexts, for example when describing a former tanning site or a trade recorded in old documents. It remains useful to readers interested in the history of crafts, labor, and urban development because it names a specific kind of industrial building rather than the general process of tanning. In ordinary contemporary speech, tannery is the usual term, and fullery may sound deliberately historical or locally preserved. The word is pronounced with stress on the first syllable and is pluralized as fulleries.
nounA tannery, especially a place where animal hides are tanned and processed into leather.
- A place where hides are tanned, especially a tannery.
"The old fullery along the river once supplied leather to the surrounding district."
"The guide explained how the old fullery processed raw hides into finished leather."
"The industrial survey identifies the building as a former fullery in the town's historic leather district."
The standard plural is fulleries, pronounced with stress on the first syllable.
"Several leather fulleries operated along the river during the nineteenth century."
A fullery was no place for fullness—it was where raw hides were transformed into leather.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Words that share this root
How fullery is actually used
Rare and chiefly historical in modern English. It is still encountered in architectural, industrial, and local-history contexts, especially when describing a former tannery or leather-working site.
Easily confused with fullery
A fuller is a person or tool that cleans and thickens woven cloth, whereas a fullery is a place where hides are tanned.