FOREMAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does foreman mean? 

• FOREMAN (noun)
  The noun FOREMAN has 2 senses:

1. a person who exercises control over workers

2. a man who is foreperson of a jury

  Familiarity information: FOREMAN used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOREMAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who exercises control over workers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

boss; chief; foreman; gaffer; honcho

Context example:

if you want to leave early you have to ask the foreman

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

supervisor (one who supervises or has charge and direction of)

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

baas (South African term for 'boss')

ganger (the foreman of a work gang)

assistant foreman; straw boss (a member of a work gang who supervises the other workers)

Derivation:

foremanship (the position of foreman)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A man who is foreperson of a jury

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

foreperson (the presiding member of the jury and the one who speaks on their behalf)

Derivation:

foremanship (the position of foreman)

 Context examples 

At last, when nothing else would do, he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An interview with a surly gatekeeper and a surlier foreman, both of whom were appeased with the coin of the realm, put me on the track of Bloxam; he was sent for on my suggesting that I was willing to pay his day's wages to his foreman for the privilege of asking him a few questions on a private matter.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A certain man named Gregory, who was foreman of the packers, and another named Tipp, who was the carman, and wore a red jacket, used to address me sometimes as David: but I think it was mostly when we were very confidential, and when I had made some efforts to entertain them, over our work, with some results of the old readings; which were fast perishing out of my remembrance.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Father was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)