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• John Henry
  John Henry

  noun

  a person's signature.
• Henry, John
  Henry, John

  A hero of American folktales and folk songs. The stories portray him as a black man, enormously strong, who worked on railroads or on steamboats and died from exhaustion after he outperformed a steam drill in a contest.
• “John Henry”
  “John Henry”

  An American folksong (see folk music) about the “steel-driving man” John Henry. It contains these lines:

  John Henry said to his captain,

  “A man ain't nothin' but a man,

  And before I'd let your steam drill beat me down,

  I'd die with the hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord!

  I'd die with the hammer in my hand.”

John Henry

American  

noun

• John Henries
  plural

1. Informal. a person's signature.

2. U.S. Folklore. a legendary Black man of exceptional strength and stamina.

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Henry, John ¹ Cultural  

1. A hero of American folktales and folk songs. The stories portray him as a black man, enormously strong, who worked on railroads or on steamboats and died from exhaustion after he outperformed a steam drill in a contest.

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“John Henry” ² Cultural  

1. An American folksong (see folk music) about the “steel-driving man” John Henry. It contains these lines:

   John Henry said to his captain,

   “A man ain't nothin' but a man,

   And before I'd let your steam drill beat me down,

   I'd die with the hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord!

   I'd die with the hammer in my hand.”

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• John Henries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of John Henry

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15; from the proper name

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

John Henry Henry, John “John Henry”

Around the same time that she became Catholic, Spark co-edited the letters of the 19th-century cardinal John Henry Newman.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

Mostly, however, Boston is steaming at principal owner John Henry, a former civic hero who’s become regarded as an aloof steward distracted by investments like Liverpool in the English Premier League.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026

This monument resides directly across from a series of photographs by John Henry featuring Black mothers similarly holding their sons in urban environments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2025

Kirsh can’t resist taunting his foe through milky spittle, reminding Morrow that John Henry died of exhaustion.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2025

Brer and John Henry, Miss Sarah and Miss Rose—they were all staring in amazement, their jaws hanging open.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia

Heinz, the American company perhaps most associated with ketchup, didn’t get into the game until 1876, seven years after Henry John Heinz set up the company to sell horseradish using his mother’s recipe.

From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2018

Drue Heinz, 103, who used her riches from her third marriage — to Henry John Heinz II, the family behind the H.J.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2018

A trained civil engineer and architect, Henry John Ott provided instrumental input into its construction, son Walther Ott said in a letter about the church’s history.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 22, 2017

They were reportedly introduced by Heinz’s then-husband, Henry John Heinz III. A year later, John died in a plane crash.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2016

Henry John, the second son, born January 18, 1787, was at the Chancery bar.

From The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., K.C.S.I. A Judge of the High Court of Justice by Stephen, Leslie, Sir

They would quickly break into a traditional folk song — perhaps “John Henry” or “Pretoria.”

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 27, 2023

Wright paints a singular version of the folk standard “John Henry” and gives his guitar a proper workout on Muddy Waters’ “Standing Around Crying.”

From Washington Times ● Oct. 30, 2016

“John Henry” touches upon several themes that C.C.R. went on to explore, foremost among them the nostalgia for some lost agrarian past.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 6, 2015

Marcus hears bluesman John Lee Hooker’s 1949 private recording of “John Henry” in Guitar Drag, along with Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock rewiring of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “the greatest and most unstable protest song there is.”

From Slate ● Sep. 10, 2014

These songs use sturdy diction and refer to very outdated ways of life; half the lyrics seem to be rewrites of imagined traditional songs, in the vein of “John Henry” or “Erie Canal.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2011

Related Words

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• imprint
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