chainman

American

[cheyn-muhn] / ˈtʃeɪn mən /

noun

Surveying.

plural

chainmen

a person who holds and positions a chain in taking measurements.

chainman British

/ ˈtʃeɪnmən /

noun

surveying a person who does the chaining in a survey

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of chainman

An Americanism dating back to 1705–15; chain + -man

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.

The man had a wrestler’s neck and the shoulders of a chainman.

From Literature

He could act as rodman, chainman or slopeman as circumstances required.

From Project Gutenberg

Sari Gabor, redhaired, green-eyed "Miss Hungary" of 1936, planning to divorce Hotel Chainman Conrad Hilton, coolly figured it should cost him a cool $10,000,000.

From Time Magazine Archive

The head chainman carried all of these to start with, and stuck one into the ground at the end of each hundred feet.

From Project Gutenberg

The rear chainman gathered them up as he came to them, and thus, by counting the number of pins in his hand, he always knew just what distance had been measured.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023