Definitions

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

  • noun A man who performs manual or industrial labor for wages.
  • noun A craftsman or artisan.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A man who is employed in manual labor, whether skilled or unskilled; a worker; a toiler; specifically, an artificer, mechanic, or artisan; a handicraftsman.
  • noun In general, one who works in any department of physical or mental labor; specifically, a worker considered with especial reference to his manner of or skill in work—that is, workmanship.

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

  • noun A man employed in labor, whether in tillage or manufactures; a worker.
  • noun Hence, especially, a skillful artificer or laborer.

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

  • noun A man who labours for wages
  • noun An artisan or craftsman

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

  • noun an employee who performs manual or industrial labor

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English werkman, from Old English weorcmann ("workman"), equivalent to work +‎ man. Compare Dutch werkman ("workman"), German Werkmann ("labourer, workman"), Icelandic verkamaður ("workman").

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Examples

  • The forces of supply and demand determine these prices — and the price of a skilled workman is no exception.

    The new underclass : Law is Cool 2009

  • A period had been reached, and he was rounding it off in workman-like fashion.

    Chapter 40 2010

  • An American workman will "give equal attention simultaneously to three, four, or six machines or tools, while the British workman is compelled by his trade union to limit his attention to one, so that employment may be given to half-a-dozen men."

    THE SCAB 2010

  • But if the workman is not able to pay for it, he will not have the speed and steam, that is all.

    COFFEE-HOUSES AND DOSS-HOUSES 2010

  • So all the world, like the British workman, is 'twixt the devil and the deep sea.

    THE SCAB 2010

  • Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic.

    May I Be Excused? My Brain Is Full. 2007

  • In the café entrance a workman is setting up a second-hand radio on a wall.

    Naguib Mahfouz - Prose 1988

  • The British taxpayer, of course, in the end pays, but the British workman is kept busy producing the goods.

    The British Election 1950

  • The British workman is a handy man and he helps by making benches and other rough furniture and equipment.

    Great Britain—Progress and Prospects 1933

  • The doctrine that the workman is entitled to a living wage has become obsolete.

    A Pernicious Propaganda 1919

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