Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who is on duty at night, as a watchman.
  • noun A scavenger whose business is the cleaning of ash-pits and privies in the night.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One whose business is emptying privies by night.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical One whose business is emptying privies by night.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

night +‎ -man

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Examples

  • The libeller has said his say; the detectives who make a specialty of literary forgeries have proved their cases one and all; the judges of matter have spoken, and so have the critics of style; the distinguished author of _Nana_ has taken us into his confidence on the subject; we have heard from the lamented Granier and others as much as was to be heard on the question of plagiarism in general and the plagiarisms of Dumas in particular; and Mr. Percy Fitzgerald has done what he is pleased to designate the 'nightman's work' of analysing

    Views and Reviews Essays in appreciation William Ernest Henley 1876

  • So please, just don't.god. people man, people. nightman yeah i agree TROLLS STAY OUT!

    The Greatest Muppet Movie Of All Time | /Film 2010

  • Because the nightman says that shaking hands are evil.

    Small Potatoes 2010

  • But at Ace the nightman could not say where the missing boys had gone.

    Golden State 2010

  •  When he's finally able to ignore the throbbing, he bids goodbye and good riddance to Homeless (who is still muttering nonsense about the nightman) and finds the nearest pay phone.

    Small Potatoes 2010

  • Walking around the streets of England, France, and most other European countries remained a distasteful business for some time, although it did give rise to the profession of being a nightman or scavenger, latter terms for a gongfermor.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • Walking around the streets of England, France, and most other European countries remained a distasteful business for some time, although it did give rise to the profession of being a nightman or scavenger, latter terms for a gongfermor.

    Flushed W. Hodding Carter 2006

  • I miss the goofy things we used to do in the middle of the night, the way we could talk for hours about nothing, I miss doing Paul Bunyan nightman with her.

    aleighk21 Diary Entry aleighk21 2003

  • The nightman from the Something knew nothing either; he was snapping routine shots that would look like any other fire-scene photos.

    The Cat Who Sang For The Birds Braun, Lilian Jackson 1998

  • Gomery; and in return Montgomery, who, allowing that as Watts was the lawfully begotten son of a respectable nightman of the name of Joseph

    The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 Various

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