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Glite Dictionary
ship-breaker

ship-breaker

8.2
A person or company that buys old ships and takes them apart to sell metal
  • noun
  • /ˈʃɪpˌbreɪkər/
translation icon : desguazador de barcos
  • Eventually, as timbers rotted and obsolescence advanced, these great vessels were stripped and sold to ship breakers to be dismantled for timber, plank by plank.

Examples

  • The ship-breaker carefully dismantled the old cargo vessel, salvaging valuable metals for recycling.

  • So say you're a ship breaker in Bangladesh, you know, one that's met with Rizwana.

  • So say you're a ship breaker in Bangladesh, you know, one that's met with Rizwana.

  • In the ship-breaking yard, workers efficiently cut apart the decommissioned ships to recover usable materials.

  • The ship-breaker's business thrived as demand for scrap metal increased in the local market.

Surface Forms

ship-breaker singular
ship-breakers plural

Morphology

ship-breaker = ship + breaker (transparent) = ship + break + er

The compound 'ship-breaker' is a straightforward combination of 'ship' + 'breaker' (breaker = one who breaks), so the occupational meaning is directly deducible.

Etymology

Ship-breaker is a simple compound of ship and break, giving a clear picture of someone who 'breaks' old ships into pieces. That's why a ship-breaker is a person or company that buys old ships and takes them apart so the metal and other materials can be reused.