Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A boatman.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A boatman; a ferryman; a man who manages water-craft; one who plies for hire on rivers, etc.
- n. One who carries or distributes water; specifically, a person who waits at a cab-stand for the purpose of supplying the horses with water, calling the cabmen when they are absent, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete A seaman, a sailor.
- n. A man who lives or works on the water; a boatman.
- n. Someone who distributes or supplies water for a living; a water-carrier.
- n. dated Specifically, an attendant on cab stands who supplies water to the horses.
- n. surfing A man skilled in multiple aquatic sports disciplines, such as surfing, bodysurfing, undersea diving, canoe paddling, fishing, etc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A man who plies for hire on rivers, lakes, or canals, or in harbors, in distinction from a seaman who is engaged on the high seas; a man who manages fresh-water craft; a boatman; a ferryman.
- n. engraving An attendant on cab stands, etc., who supplies water to the horses.
- n. A water demon.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone who drives or rides in a boat
Etymologies
- From water + man. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Denwood Long, a troubled slave catcher and eastern shore waterman, is coaxed out of retirement to break "The Code" and track down Liz.”
Song Yet Sung: Summary and book reviews of Song Yet Sung by James McBride.
“And then on the road, there is trunk-lifter, and coachman, and guard, and beggar-man, and a critter that opens the coach door, that they calls a waterman, cause he is infarnal dirty, and never sees water.”
“The stand was now before their eyes; and the waterman was the first person to apply to — going to the waterman for information being clearly (if Mr. Armadale would excuse the joke) going to the fountain-head.”
“The waterman was a merry-looking man who spoke no word but whistled to himself cheerfully as he laid himself to the oars, and the boat began to move slantingly across the flowing tide.”
“The stand was now before their eyes; and the waterman was the first person to apply to -- going to the waterman for information being clearly (if Mr. Armadale would excuse the joke) going to the fountain-head.”
“Then we had better go ourselves, Tom," said I, and we went forward to call the waterman, who was lying on his oars close to the frigate.”
“When this was obtained, he would call a waterman, throw him a crown, and tell him to get out of his wherry as fast as he could.”
“Magsaysay award winner Rajendra Singh, also known as the waterman of India, on Wednesday expressed solidarity with the agitation launched by Dhotre.”
“They were written "in character;" and the character was that of the "waterman" at the Charing-cross cabstand, first discovered by George Cattermole, whose imitations of him were a delight to Dickens at this time, and adapted themselves in the exuberance of his admiration to every conceivable variety of subject.”
“waterman" is labouring at the oar, rowing him across a river.”
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 551, June 9, 1832
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘waterman’.
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water phrases/words
how water is used
water-dress, water-door, water-eft, water-eel, water-doe, water-dark, water-crow, water-crake, water-day, water-dam, water-cut, water-cell and 906 more...
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phrontistery-w
from phrontistery.info
wyrd, wynd, wyn, wye, wuthering, wurzel, wurst, wurley, wuffler, wrox, wroth, wrongous and 282 more...
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Man
Everything that contains a man in it
taxman, salesman, common man, spaceman, neolithic man, straw man, seaman, fireman, spiderman, overman, old man, con man and 373 more...
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The Innocents Abroad
Words rounded up while reading The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.
rakish, excursionist, bowelless, pilgrimizing, melodeon, woebegone, abaft, sextant, veriest, behindhand, stanchion, avast and 188 more...
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Trades Featured in R. Campbell's The ...
Hey kids! What do YOU want to be when you grow up?!
Reprint edition, Devon: Latimer Trend & Co., Ltd., 1969. Full original citation (you'd better grab a drink and sit down) is:
...woollen draper, wood monger, wood cutter, wine cooper, woolsted man, wool card maker, wool comber, wool stapler, wire drawer, whalebone-man, whip maker, weaver and 343 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, W
washboard, winterbourne, winze, wirble, waterway, windrow, winceyette, waft, whiffletree, wheelbarrow, whicker, wacky and 170 more...
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