WORKMAN

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does workman mean? 

• WORKMAN (noun)
  The noun WORKMAN has 1 sense:

1. an employee who performs manual or industrial labor

  Familiarity information: WORKMAN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WORKMAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An employee who performs manual or industrial labor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

working man; working person; workingman; workman

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

employee (a worker who is hired to perform a job)

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

bagger; boxer; packer (a workman employed to pack things into containers)

wetter (a workman who wets the work in a manufacturing process)

warehouseman; warehouser (a workman who manages or works in a warehouse)

utility man (a workman expected to serve in any capacity when called on)

stamper (a workman whose job is to form or cut out by applying a mold or die (either by hand or by operating a stamping machine))

sponger (a workman employed to collect sponges)

shearer (a workman who uses shears to cut leather or metal or textiles)

scratcher (a workman who uses a tool for scratching)

roundsman (a workman employed to make rounds (to deliver goods or make inspections or so on))

road mender; roadman (a workman who is employed to repair roads)

disinfestation officer; rat-catcher (a workman employed to destroy or drive away vermin)

paster (a workman who pastes)

excavator (a workman who excavates for foundations of buildings or for quarrying)

mover (workman employed by a moving company)

factory worker; mill-hand (a workman in a mill or factory)

Luddite (one of the 19th century English workmen who destroyed laborsaving machinery that they thought would cause unemployment)

lather (a workman who puts up laths)

lacer (a workman who laces shoes or footballs or books (during binding))

jack; laborer; labourer; manual laborer (someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor)

heaver (a workman who heaves freight or bulk goods (especially at a dockyard))

guest worker; guestworker (a person with temporary permission to work in another country)

gas fitter (a workman who installs and repairs gas fixtures and appliances)

fuller (a workman who fulls (cleans and thickens) freshly woven cloth for a living)

blaster; chargeman (a workman employed to blast with explosives)

Derivation:

workmanship (skill in an occupation or trade)

 Context examples 

True, Jenkin, said another workman; but it is not all good that is brought by it either.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But he was a good workman—one of the best.

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

Sorry to see that you’ve had the British workman in the house.

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

It was twelve o'clock before I got any satisfactory hint of such a building, and this I got at a coffee-shop, where some workmen were having their dinner.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

You might bring in the workmen to give a room a new coat of paint, institute needed repairs, or do a thorough cleaning of your apartment.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The fellow was an ingenious workman, and by my instructions, in ten days, finished a pleasure-boat with all its tackling, able conveniently to hold eight Europeans.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any workmen at the moment of our visit.

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

Ham was a boat-builder in these days, having improved a natural ingenuity in that handicraft, until he had become a skilled workman.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But the king made the most skilful workmen in his kingdom weave the three dresses: one golden, like the sun; another silvery, like the moon; and a third sparkling, like the stars: and his hunters were told to hunt out all the beasts in his kingdom, and to take the finest fur out of their skins: and thus a mantle of a thousand furs was made.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The next morning we fell early to work, for the transportation of this great mass of gold near a mile by land to the beach, and thence three miles by boat to the HISPANIOLA, was a considerable task for so small a number of workmen.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)