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  1. navvy love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Chiefly British A laborer, especially one employed in construction or excavation projects.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Same as navigation, 4.
  2. n. Same as navigator, 2.
  3. n. A common laborer engaged in such work as the making of canals or railways.
  4. n. A power-machine for excavating earth. A common form has an excavating scoop, crab, or analogous device for scooping up earth or gravel, or grasping stones, with a boom and tackle for lifting and operating the scoop, etc., and a steam hoisting-engine, all mounted on a supporting platform provided with car-wheels so that it can be moved on a temporary railway for changing its position. Similar machines are also mounted on large scow-boats for use along water-fronts. Also called steam-excavator.

Wiktionary

  1. n. a laborer on a civil engineering project such as a canal or railroad

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. engraving Originally, a laborer on canals for internal navigation; hence, a laborer on other public works, as in building railroads, embankments, etc.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a laborer who is obliged to do menial work

Etymologies

  1. From the navigation canals upon which these workers first toiled. (Wiktionary)
  2. Short for navigator, canal laborer (obsolete). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The navvy was a fine specimen of humanity, with a complexion tanned a dusky coffee colour.”

    The Right Stuff Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton

  • “Sanitary Tom" (as the boys called the navvy who was his stout ally), had been at work laying bare the subterranean geography of our premises and making all right.”

    Uppingham by the Sea a Narrative of the Year at Borth

  • “It was in the formation of this, the true beginning of railways, that the British "navvy" was called into being.”

    The Iron Horse

  • “He can doff them and work like a 'navvy' when he sees reason.”

    The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded

  • “navvy," had just disposed of a supply of rugs and was wending his way homeward at the same time.”

    I Married a Ranger

  • “He was good for nothing now except navvy work, and his broken nose and swollen ear were against him even in that.”

    A PIECE OF STEAK

  • “He had done a few days 'navvy work when he could get it, and he had run around the Domain in the early mornings to get his legs in shape.”

    A PIECE OF STEAK

  • “He felt weak and sore, and the pain of his smashed knuckles warned him that, even if he could find a job at navvy work, it would be a week before he could grip a pick handle or a shovel.”

    A PIECE OF STEAK

  • “Oh, I sleep like a baby, eat like a navvy, and in years have not enjoyed such physical well-being.”

    CHAPTER XLIV

  • “It is a building where the homeless, bedless, penniless man, if he be lucky, may CASUALLY rest his weary bones, and then work like a navvy next day to pay for it.”

    A WINNER OF THE VICTORIA CROSS

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hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. jack
  1. laborer
  1. labourer
  1. manual laborer

same context (16)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. bagpiper
  2. layde
  3. cabby
  1. telegraph-office
  2. bassist
  3. dozy
  1. flautist
  2. teamster
  3. peon
  1. bluebell
  2. sapper
  3. tinman
  1. geisha
  2. market-gardener
  3. roughneck
  1. plumber

reverse dictionary (5)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. navigation
  1. navigator
  1. navy
  1. steam-excavator
  1. steam shovel

Wordmap

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Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘navvy’.

Comments

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  • sionnach Irish Navvy
    Blasket Islands Jul 11, 2008

  • sionnach The derivation from navigator never seemed plausible to me, but is correct, apparently. Michael Quinion writes about it here, .

    Anyone who attended secondary school in Ireland is bound to be familiar with the work of a navvy. The infamous "Dialann Deorai", translated into English as "Irish Navvy : Diary of an Exile", was mandatory reading for the Intermediate Cert exam.

    Since there were pathetically few authors writing in Irish, the same few books showed up on the syllabus year after year. The other hardy perennials were the appalling, oppressive Blaskets memoirs:

    "An t-Oileánach" (The Islander), by Tomás Ó Criomhthain,
    "Fiche Blian ag Fás" (Twenty Years A-Growing) by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin,
    and the altogether execrable "Peig" by the batty old she-demon herself, Peig Sayers.

    The doom-and-gloom maunderings of this marginally literate peasant trio are brilliantly skewered in Flann O' Brien's An Béal Bocht (The Poor Mouth).


    Jul 11, 2008

  • arby When I first saw this word I thought it was a bizarre misspelling of navy.

    My favorite lyrical usage is in Towers of London by XTC:

    Fog is the sweat of the never never navvies who pound
    Spikes in the rails to their very own heaven     Jun 27, 2008

  • chained_bear A construction worker; spec. a labourer employed in the construction of (originally) a canal, (now freq.) a road, railway, etc.

    Favorite Songs: "Navigator" by the Pogues. "Poor Paddy," trad., arr. Pogues. "The Navvy on the Line," trad. British/Irish (used in fife and drum). Feb 2, 2007

  • brtom "A drunken navvy ups with both hands the railings of an area, lurching heavily."
    Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Jan 27, 2007

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‘navvy’ has been looked up 2512 times, loved by 3 people, added to 17 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.