longshoreman

[ lawng-shawr-muhn, -shohr-, long- ]

noun

, plural long·shore·men.

1. a person employed on the wharves of a port, as in loading and unloading vessels.

longshoreman

/ ˈlɒŋˌʃɔːmən /

noun

1. a man employed in the loading or unloading of ships Also called (in Britain and certain other countries)docker

Gender Note

See -man.

Word History and Origins

Origin of longshoreman¹

First recorded in 1805–15; longshore + -man

Example Sentences

Before that, longshoremen had to load ships by hand, which was a long and costly process, said Willy Shih, a professor of supply chain management at Harvard Business School.

From Washington Post

In 2011, labor unions saw an opening, and several declared support for Occupy or marched including New York City transit workers, a Teamsters local, and later longshoremen at an Oakland, California offshoot.

From Time

Consequently, it takes more trucks, more longshoremen, and more time to move cargo.

From Popular-Science

The eye-opener appears to be designed with a longshoreman or heavy drinker in mind.

From Washington Post

Now he was back on the campaign trail, meeting with longshoremen in New Jersey.

From Washington Post

From 1934 to 1942, he was a busboy, a dishwasher, a truck driver, and a longshoreman.

From The Daily Beast

This girl was 'keeping company' with a longshoreman, who had as much as $25 in good weeks.

From Project Gutenberg

In their company, he traveled through Russia in every sense of the word, now as a longshoreman, now as a wood-chopper.

From Project Gutenberg

At the bar, a laughing longshoreman pushed a five-centavo coin into the nickeled red juke box, pressed the "Bsame" button.

From Project Gutenberg

You could see he was yearning, just dying, to taste of a middle-aged longshoreman by the name of Obed Nickerson.

From Project Gutenberg

The sailor and the train-hand, the longshoreman and the teamster, transport them to the industrial centres.

From Project Gutenberg

More About Longshoreman

What does longshoreman mean?

A longshoreman is a person who works loading and unloading shipping vessels at a dock.

A longshoreman can also be called a docker or dockworker. The work of a longshoreman is called longshoring. Although the profession has traditionally been done primarily by men, women also do the job, and one can be called a longshorewoman, a woman longshoreman, or a female longshoreman.

Example: When I worked as a longshoreman, I made good money, but the work was exhausting.

Where does longshoreman come from?

The first records of longshoreman come from the early 1800s. It’s based on the word longshore, which means “at or employed along the shore, especially at or near a seaport.“ Longshore is a shortening of alongshore, meaning quite simply “along the shore or coast.”

Longshoremen work at ports where ships deliver goods that are then unloaded so they can be distributed by other means. Today, the work of a longshoreman primarily involves the loading and unloading of shipping containers. But before such containers became common in the shipping industry, longshoremen often had to handle heavy loads of goods in all different kinds of containers. Historically, the job has been associated with heavy manual labor under sometimes dangerous conditions. Longshoremen are often part of labor unions that negotiate to improve the conditions they work in.

Did you know ... ?

What are some other forms related to longshoreman?

• longshoremen (plural noun)
• longshorewoman (noun)
• longshorewomen (plural noun)

What are some synonyms for longshoreman?

• dockworker 
• docker 
• stevedore

What are some words that share a root or word element with longshoreman? 

 

• long
• shore
• longshore
• longshoring

What are some words that often get used in discussing longshoreman?

 

• load
• wharf
• dock
• port
• shipping
• vessel

How is longshoreman used in real life?

The term longshoreman is commonly associated with hard manual labor, so longshoremen are often thought of as tough and hardworking.

Local longshoremen handled more than 600 containers yesterday at Terminal 6, as our weekly SM Line container service continues. We’re grateful for all their work to move essential cargo right now. pic.twitter.com/XZVFzZdxIn

— Curtis Robinhold (@crobinhold) April 21, 2020

Good points from Angela Talic of BCMEA on the difficulties of being a female longshoreman & how she overcame them #sheTalks @Resource_Works

— Caroline Bleay (@cdbleay) May 4, 2015

Well done @GovMurphy for thanking the International Longshoreman Association! The hard work going on at the ports is often overlooked, even though shipping is our lifeline ⚓️🚢

— Emily McCulloch (@emmyloumac) April 3, 2020

 

 

Try using longshoreman!

Which of the following words is NOT a synonym of longshoreman? 

A. dockworker
B. docker
C. sailor
D. stevedore