longshoreman

American  

[lawng-shawr-muhn, -shohr-, long-] / ˈlɔŋˈʃɔr mən, -ˈʃoʊr-, ˈlɒŋ- /

noun

longshoremen plural

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

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longshoreman British  

/ ˈlɒŋˌʃɔːmən /

noun

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

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Usage

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.

Gender

See -man.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• longshoremen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of longshoreman

First recorded in 1805–15; longshore + -man

Explanation

A person who works loading and unloading vessels in a harbor is a longshoreman. Many modern longshoremen use cranes and forklifts to move containers on and off container ships. Other words for this job are stevedore and dockworker. The term longshoreman, commonly used in the U.S. and Canada, was derived from man-along-the-shore or man alongshore. Still, any laborer who moves goods onto or off of a ship can be called a longshoreman, even if they're not a man. There aren't as many of these jobs today as there once were, but there are still more than 100,000 longshoremen who work in dozens of U.S. ports.

Example Sentences

I thanked the longshoreman guy and headed upstairs, followed quickly by orange, tailless Lucy the Bookstore Cat.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 14, 2023

The show, which opens at the Waterfront Museum on Friday, follows Marty, a longshoreman in 1950 who fights against the union corruption that controlled Red Hook’s waterfront.

From New York Times • Jun. 9, 2023

He quit school and left home in his mid-teens, working as a dishwasher and longshoreman, among other jobs, to save money for acting school.

From Washington Post • Sep. 16, 2022

The longshoreman with tousled blond hair and a friendly nature gets emotional talking about his spot.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 30, 2022

The longshoreman gave her a queer look, shmgged, and walked away.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin