PROSPECTOR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does prospector mean? 

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

1. someone who explores an area for mineral deposits

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROSPECTOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who explores an area for mineral deposits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

miner; mineworker (laborer who works in a mine)

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

sourdough (a settler or prospector (especially in western United States or northwest Canada and Alaska))

Derivation:

prospect (explore for useful or valuable things or substances, such as minerals)

 Context examples 

"I'd prefer being taken for a prospector or a dog-musher."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

With much labor we got our things up the steps, and then, looking back, took one last long survey of that strange land, soon I fear to be vulgarized, the prey of hunter and prospector, but to each of us a dreamland of glamour and romance, a land where we had dared much, suffered much, and learned much—OUR land, as we shall ever fondly call it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)