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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.”

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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

Related Words

• impression
• imprint
• line
• point
• record
• scar
• score
• signature
• spot
• stain
• stamp
• streak
• symbol