brakeman
Americannoun
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brakemen
plural
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a railroad worker who assists the conductor in the operation of a train.
noun
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a crew member of a goods or passenger train. His duties include controlling auxiliary braking power and inspecting the train
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the person at the back of a two- or four-man bobsleigh, who operates the brake
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of brakeman
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The brakeman tried to apply emergency brakes but failed to prevent the derailment, the investigators added.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2025
His father was a brakeman for the Central of Georgia rail company, and when his parents separated when he was 10, Nate moved with his mother and brothers to Elizabeth, N.J., where his grandmother lived.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2025
Mr. Andre initially found it so difficult to support himself that he worked as a freight brakeman and conductor on the Pennsylvania Railroad in New Jersey.
From New York Times ● Jan. 24, 2024
Teaming with brakeman Kaysha Love, Humphries is fifth at the midway point in 2:03.38 — nearly six-tenths of a second away from what currently is the bronze position.
From Fox News ● Feb. 18, 2022
“You mean a brakeman off the Wabash Railroad?”
From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck
He is considered one of Great Britain's best bobsleigh brakemen, having won 15 World Cup medals - including three golds - as part of the two-man and four-man teams.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2024
The brakemen on the bobsled tour often come up with various off-track competitions and one day, the challenge was long jumping.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 11, 2022
“To continue to fight for greater and greater participation among women and get those brakemen get more medal opportunities too.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2022
The technology would end the days of brakemen running on top of train cars to individually apply the brakes, a system that often required miles for a train to stop.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2018
He had learned from watching the brakemen that dangerous backward left-hand swing that lands you stock-still in your tracks.
From The Harbor by Ernest Poole
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
