Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A man who narrates or coordinates a newscast in which several correspondents give reports.
  • noun A man who is an anchor in a competition, such as a relay race.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun a woman television reporter who coordinates a broadcast to which several correspondents contribute. Male correlate of anchorwoman.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The main host of a television or radio program, particularly one relating to the broadcast of news.
  • noun athletics The most reliable runner in a relay team, usually the one that runs last.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a television reporter who coordinates a broadcast to which several correspondents contribute

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From anchor +‎ man.

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Examples

  • Obituaries claimed that the term anchorman was first coined to refer to Cronkite, but as I wrote in

    Visual Thesaurus : Online Edition 2009

  • According to journalistic lore, network news producer emeritus Don Hewitt coined the term anchorman on 7 July 1952, to describe the late Walter Cronkite's coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

    Barry Michael Cooper: Walter Cronkite, Anchorman: When Holdin' It Down Lifted U.S. Up 2009

  • But the role of star anchorman is a relatively new one for our guest.

    Television News: History on the Run 1986

  • The broadcast also popularized an industry term -- "anchorman" -- employed to describe Cronkite's central role in the convention coverage.

    unknown title 2009

  • Two years later, he broke into the national consciousness with his work at the 1952 political conventions, serving as CBS '"anchorman" -- a word coined to describe Cronkite's role as point person for the network's correspondents.

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED 2009

  • Two years later, he broke into the national consciousness with his work at the 1952 political conventions, serving as CBS '"anchorman" -- a word coined to describe Cronkite's role as point person for the network's correspondents.

    CNN.com 2009

  • Ryan on Jul 22, 2008 anchorman is easily the most quotable and one of the funniest movies i've seen. im doubtful they will be able to recreate that magic of stupidity from the first one with such a larger audience. it's exactly like #1 said. it looked like the cast was just having fun but with more pressure and higher expectations at the box office, the sequel might lose the fun the first one had. and on an unrelated note, TDK is incredible in IMAX. check it out jim on Jul 23, 2008

    Update From Will Ferrell and Adam McKay on Anchorman 2 « FirstShowing.net 2008

  • He was a true journalist in every sense of the word, best known as anchorman for the "CBS Evening News" for 19 years between 1962-81.

    Dr. Abraham Froman: Farewell Mustachiopithicus 2009

  • He called his anchorman father, Nick, and the two took a trip to the war-torn region to document the atrocities going on there.

    CNN Transcript Apr 26, 2006 2006

  • The anchorman is the face of the network, of the entire network, not only of its news division.

    Out of Thin Air: The Brief Wonderful Life of Network News 1991

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