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workingman

workingman

3 2.9
A man who does manual work, often in a factory or on a building site
  • noun
  • /ˈwɜrkɪŋˌmæn/
translation icon : trabajador
  • The factory hired a new workingman to help with the assembly line.

Examples

  • The Central Labor Union urged labor organizations across the country to also band together to celebrate a "workingman's holiday."

    Blog text (25)
  • Hardy noticed the hands clasped in front of him—the kind of hands that, when he got older, people would call gnarled—workingman's hands, huge and somehow expressive.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • You used to write an awful lot about the workingman...

  • Every workingman can have his own house... and inside every house, a happy, all-American family.

  • The workingman and the slum child... ...know they can expect my best efforts in their interests.

  • But their initial annoyed response showed the true attitude of the better sort of people toward the workingman.

    Blog text (27)
  • We'd captured the imagination of the country, restored the average workingman's faith in progress, and given America a cause to stand up and shout about.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • When he sees the luxurious residence or the charming country house of a wealthy person, a poor workingman often asks himself: "Why is there such inequality in the world?"

    Blog text (31)
  • Indeed, the single attribute of the workingman that the upper and middle classes envied was his masculinity, shown in physical and drinking prowess and exposure to danger at work.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Neighborhood taverns—the workingman's country clubs—are largely gone, sometimes replaced by franchise fast-food joints but just as often by coffee bars or small chic restaurants.

    Academic text (2009)

Synonyms

worker
vsworkingman
600 1.0

A person employed to do physical or routine jobs

narrows this to male manual or industrial employment rather than any job
laborer
vsworkingman
  • US
68 1.0

A person who does hard physical work without special skills, often on building sites

adds the male employment contrast and industrial context beyond unskilled work
working man
vsworkingman
53 2.9

A man who does physical work with his hands, not an office worker

is the identical sense but appears as one written form
working person
vsworkingman
49 2.8

A person who does manual or factory work for pay, not a manager

specifies a male worker rather than a gender neutral employee
workman
vsworkingman
13 1.4

A person who does physical jobs like building or fixing things

is broader about industrial manual work not limited to those sectors
hired hand
vsworkingman
7 3.6

A person paid to do manual work on a farm or ranch

stresses male employment in wider industrial and urban manual roles
hired man
vsworkingman
4 3.2

A man who works on a farm for pay

is broader, covering male industrial and manual jobs not only farms
manual laborer
vsworkingman
  • US
1 3.0

A person who does hard work using their hands

highlights male employment contrast rather than effort or hand focus

Antonyms

1.6

A person who controls money and work in a company

401 3.7

A person who has special training and works in a skilled job

Surface Forms

workingman singular
workingmen plural

Morphology

workingman = working + man (transparent) = working + man

The compound is a straightforward combination of 'working' (work + -ing) + 'man', clearly meaning a man who works.

Etymology

Workingman comes from putting together work ('to do a job') and man ('adult male'), so it originally meant a man who does physical or factory work. That's why today workingman refers to a male worker who does manual or factory labor, not a manager.