lighterman
- noun
- /ˈlaɪtərmən/
- Archaic
- Working as a lighterman, he was responsible for transporting goods between the shore and the waiting vessels.
- a lighterman's hat
Examples
-
The lighterman skillfully navigated the flat-bottomed barge to load cargo onto the ship.
-
I was rising fifty before I found out that my grandfather, my father's father, was not a lighterman on the Thames as I had always been told, but an Italian ship's cook called Achille Benati—a much more romantic ancestor altogether.
Fiction book (1991) -
"What are we going to do on it?" Slipper asked, leaning back in his chair and setting his lighterman's hat on his head.
Fiction book (1991) -
He had taken off his lighterman's hat and was punching a crease in its crown.
Fiction book (1991) -
He buttoned his coat and cocked the lighterman's hat to one side.
Fiction book (1991) -
Before becoming a lighterman, he spent several years learning to operate the specialized barge used for shipping.
Synonyms
A person who steers a long flat boat to move goods along rivers or canals
A woman who works on a flat boat moving goods between ships and the shore
A person who works on a flat boat that carries goods on rivers and canals
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word lighterman comes from the boat called a lighter, a flat barge that 'makes a ship lighter' by taking off cargo. The ending -man means 'person', so a lighterman is someone who works that barge to load and unload ships.