Daily AncestorClicker
A clicker cut the uppers of shoes out of leather with a sharp, flexible knife that clicked as it changed direction, a skilled step in shoemaking.
In factory shoemaking the work was split among many hands, and the clicker's job was cutting out the leather uppers. The name comes from the sound of the knife.
The same word had other trade meanings: in printing a clicker was the worker who locked type into the form ready for the press, and in old British use a clicker was a tout who stood at a shop door inviting people in to buy.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1870 to 1930 census
Walter Moss, 30, Clicker, Shoe factory
Sources
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Daily Ancestor. "Clicker." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/clicker. Last checked 2026-10-10.