LABORER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does laborer mean? 

• LABORER (noun)
  The noun LABORER has 1 sense:

1. someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor

  Familiarity information: LABORER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LABORER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

jack; laborer; labourer; manual laborer

Hypernyms ("laborer" is a kind of...):

working man; working person; workingman; workman (an employee who performs manual or industrial labor)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "laborer"):

miner; mineworker (laborer who works in a mine)

yardman (a laborer hired to do outdoor work (such as mowing lawns))

wrecker (someone who demolishes or dismantles buildings as a job)

woodcutter (cuts down trees and chops wood as a job)

fireman; stoker (a laborer who tends fires (as on a coal-fired train or steamship))

dock-walloper; dock worker; docker; dockhand; dockworker; loader; longshoreman; lumper; stevedore (a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port)

steeplejack (someone who builds or maintains very tall structures)

stacker (a laborer who builds up a stack or pile)

sprayer (a worker who applies spray to a surface)

section hand (a laborer assigned to a section gang)

sawyer (one who is employed to saw wood)

rail-splitter; splitter (a laborer who splits logs to build split-rail fences)

porter (a person employed to carry luggage and supplies)

platelayer; tracklayer (a workman who lays and repairs railroad tracks)

mule driver; mule skinner; muleteer; skinner (a worker who drives mules)

agricultural laborer; agricultural labourer (a person who tills the soil for a living)

faller; feller; logger; lumberjack; lumberman (a person who fells trees)

gipsy; gypsy; itinerant (a laborer who moves from place to place as demanded by employment)

hod carrier; hodman (a laborer who carries supplies to masons or bricklayers)

hand; hired hand; hired man (a hired laborer on a farm or ranch)

hewer (a person who hews)

gravedigger (a person who earns a living by digging graves)

gandy dancer (a laborer in a railroad maintenance gang)

drudge; galley slave; navvy; peon (a laborer who is obliged to do menial work)

dishwasher (someone who washes dishes)

digger (a laborer who digs)

day laborer; day labourer (a laborer who works by the day; for daily wages)

cleaner (someone whose occupation is cleaning)

bracero (a Mexican laborer who worked in the United States on farms and railroads in order to ease labor shortages during World War II)

Derivation:

labor (strive and make an effort to reach a goal)

labor (work hard)

 Context examples 

“And the wage?” asked a laborer.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Nay, but you will so,” said one of the laborers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“This is a lad of mettle!” shouted another of the laborers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“A proper spirit, my fair son!” said one of the free laborers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Two of the woodmen and three of the laborers drank their portions off hurriedly and trooped off together, for their homes were distant and the hour late.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Here and there by the wayside stood little knots of wattle-and-daub huts with shock-haired laborers lounging by the doors and red-cheeked children sprawling in the roadway.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Besides, if it comes to the cropping of ears, there are other folk who may say their say,” quoth the third laborer.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Close at his heels came three laborers walking abreast, with spade and mattock over their shoulders.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Beyond it there lay amid the trees the wattle-and-daub hut of a laborer, the door open, and the single room exposed to the view.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The talk of laborer, woodman and villein in the inn had all pointed to the wide-spread mutiny, and now his brother's name was spoken as though he were the very centre of the universal discontent.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)