Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that oils engines or machinery.
  • noun An oil tanker.
  • noun A ship that burns oil as fuel.
  • noun Informal An oilskin garment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An oil-merchant; an oilman.
  • noun An oil-well.
  • noun An appliance for distributing oil to the bearings or rubbing surfaces of machines.
  • noun An oil-can, generally having a long spout curved at the outer extremity, used by an attendant for supplying oil to parts of engines or other machines.
  • noun An operative employed to attend to the oiling of engines or other machinery.
  • noun A vessel engaged in the oil-trade, or in the transportation of oils.
  • noun An oilskin coat.

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

  • noun One who deals in oils.
  • noun One who, or that which, oils.
  • noun An oil tanker.
  • noun A ship which is powered by oil.
  • noun An oilcan.

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

  • noun nautical An oil tanker
  • noun An oil well
  • noun A junior role in the engine room of a ship, senior only to a wiper, consisting mainly of keeping machinery lubricated.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a cargo ship designed to carry crude oil in bulk
  • noun a well that yields or has yielded oil
  • noun a worker who oils engines or machinery

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Two guided missile cruisers, the USS Leyte Gulf and the USS Vella Gulf, a destroyer, the USS Peterson, all set to return to Norfolk and then there's an oiler, which is support ship as well for the battle group, the USS Detroit, which will return to the Earle Naval Weapons Stations in New Jersey.

    CNN Transcript Mar 27, 2002 2002

  • She might burn coal in her furnaces instead of oil-fuel, and every ounce of coal had to be shovelled on board from a collier by manual labour, whereas, in an oil-driven destroyer, one simply went alongside a jetty or an "oiler," connected up a hose, and went to bed while a pump did all the work.

    Stand By! Naval Sketches and Stories 1925

  • i don't know, maybe i'll have black kids. anyway, the homecoming was desirable (like my lips, right, youknowwho?), especially the weird modern day scripture 9/11 talk given by a 12 year old man. then we went to jon's house! the house that my friend and i drove by in high school, scouting for that "oiler" boy. i used his bathroom!

    shootin' the microwaves, so to speak kindbegger 2005

  • "But there were also five German destroyers, two of which were tied up to an 'oiler' (oil tanker).

    Shropshire Star Ian Harvey 2010

  • As an oiler in the great engine-room I was confident that few things concerning steam would escape me.

    Chapter 20 2010

  • The second and one white oiler was all that was left below, and I was in command on deck, when we made port.

    CHAPTER XXI 2010

  • Work rules at the World Trade Center require that every crane operator be accompanied by a relief crane operator and an oiler—a person that starts up the crane—for the entire time a crane is operating.

    Crane Operators Top $500,000 in Pay, Benefits Joseph De Avila 2011

  • I worked as an oiler on tankers mostly, and … between ships, I'd stay with Loretta.

    The running from San Pedro blues James Lloyd Davis 2011

  • I worked as an oiler on tankers mostly, and … between ships, I'd stay with Loretta.

    The running from San Pedro blues James Lloyd Davis 2011

  • Before that you must pass through the engine-room as an oiler.

    Chapter 20 2010

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