groundskeeper
Americannoun
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a person who is responsible for the care and maintenance of a particular tract of land, as an estate, a park, or a cemetery.
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a person in charge of maintaining a football field, baseball diamond, etc.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of groundskeeper
1930–35; + grounds ( def. ) “lawn and gardens” + keeper
Explanation
A groundskeeper is someone who's responsible for a property, often caring for gardens, lawns, and plants. The groundskeeper at the zoo works hard to keep the all the habitats looking perfect. Groundskeepers care for the grounds of a wide variety of public and private settings, including schools, state parks, baseball fields, botanical gardens, and resorts. The job of being a groundskeeper (sometimes called a "landscaper") can involve planting, weeding, mowing lawns, trimming hedges and trees, watering gardens, controlling pests, and more. If you love working outdoors and know how to use a lawn mower, you might enjoy being a groundskeeper.
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.
Like Epstein, whose father was a New York City parks groundskeeper, they had stratospheric trajectories from, say, a working-class background to running a multinational corporation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, and two months later, a California jury ruled in favor of a groundskeeper who contracted non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 2, 2025
If you’re lucky, you can even spot an adorable member of the feral cat colony, which is lovingly looked after by the cemetery’s groundskeeper.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 4, 2024
In 2018, Dewayne Johnson won a lawsuit against Monsanto; he had argued that the company’s glyphosate-based weedkiller, which he had used as a school district groundskeeper in Northern California, caused him to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
From New York Times • Dec. 7, 2023
"My groundskeeper has an errand to run back in the village," said the headmistress.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
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.
