longshoreman
Americannoun
noun
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
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of longshoreman
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As steady rain fell on Sunday, George Camarena, a lifeguard and longshoreman in Ventura, brought his Nintendo down to play video games with friends inside Pierpont Tacos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2024
It wasn’t a ticket after all but a note — “I’m the longshoreman guy who helped you today. Give me a call” — with his number.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2023
Rehearsing and performing in the barge has helped Bomba to step into the shoes of a 1950s longshoreman.
From New York Times ● Jun. 9, 2023
Murphy Marine is a family-owned business that was purchased in 2006 by a former longshoreman and three of his cousins through trusts, which are the company’s stockholders.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2022
She grabbed a passing longshoreman by the sleeve.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
Under the current contract, longshoremen earn a top rate of $39 an hour.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2024
Top-scale longshoremen earn a base pay of $39 an hour.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2024
Once the ship is removed, maritime traffic can begin returning to normal, which will provide relief for thousands of longshoremen, truckers and small business owners who have seen their jobs impacted by the closure.
From Seattle Times ● May 11, 2024
Drawn-out labor talks with longshoremen that lasted more than a year prompted some companies to divert cargo to the East and Gulf Coast ports.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
He sat a while with those longshoremen, shipwrights, and weatherworkers, taking pleasure in their slow, sparse conversation, their grumbling Gontish speech.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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.
