LANDSMAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does landsman mean? 

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

1. a person who lives and works on land

2. an inexperienced sailor; a sailor on the first voyage

  Familiarity information: LANDSMAN used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LANDSMAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who lives and works on land

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

landlubber; landman; landsman

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

denizen; dweller; habitant; indweller; inhabitant (a person who inhabits a particular place)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An inexperienced sailor; a sailor on the first voyage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

landlubber; landsman; lubber

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

beginner; initiate; novice; tiro; tyro (someone new to a field or activity)

 Context examples 

How many landsmen are there who would drink rum when they could get these other spirits?

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

The danger lay in the heavy fog which blanketed the bay, and of which, as a landsman, I had little apprehension.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When I observed that the knot was one which is popular with sailors, that the parcel had been posted at a port, and that the male ear was pierced for an earring which is so much more common among sailors than landsmen, I was quite certain that all the actors in the tragedy were to be found among our seafaring classes.

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

In truth, it was a joke to me, that I, the veriest landsman, should be filling the office of mate; but to be taken as a joke by others was a different matter.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

We were coming out of the ice-pack on our way home, with head winds and a week’s southerly gale, when we picked up a little craft that had been blown north. There was one man on her—a landsman.

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

In a moment the decks were in commotion, Johansen bellowing orders and the men pulling or letting go ropes of various sorts—all naturally confusing to a landsman such as myself.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)