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Synonyms

lumberjack

American  
[luhm-ber-jak] / ˈlʌm bərˌdʒæk /

noun

  • lumberjacks
    plural
  1. a person who works at lumbering; logger.

  2. lumber jacket.

  3. Canadian. the gray jay.


lumberjack British  
/ ˈlʌmbəˌdʒæk /

noun

  1. (esp in North America) a person whose work involves felling trees, transporting the timber, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of lumberjack

First recorded in 1825–35; lumber 1 + jack 1

Explanation

A lumberjack is someone who cuts down trees professionally. Picture someone holding a chain saw and wearing a plaid flannel shirt and steel-toe boots, and you can picture a lumberjack. These days, lumberjack sounds pretty old-fashioned — the same job is done today, but people who do it are typically called "loggers," and they use power tools like chain saws. Lumberjacks, particularly in the 19th and early 20th century, used hand saws and axes and were famous for being ruggedly independent and physically daring. Lumberjack was coined by Canadians.

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Vocabulary lists containing lumberjack

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:

Karolina Urbanova had never heard of lumberjack sports until a new neighbour moved into her small Czech village and enlisted her help for events when she was a teenager.

From BBC Jul. 22, 2026

Wanted to get my hands on it, couldn’t, and I’m happy to say that it’s good that I didn’t get my big fat lumberjack hands on it then.

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 8, 2026

After ogling old cars, lean into nostalgia in the Meadow Gold District, dotted with retro shops and “muffler men,” giant fiberglass statues of a lumberjack, a cowboy and more.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 20, 2025

Duffy, a former Republican congressman and Fox Business anchor, is also a former world champion lumberjack speed climber and cast member of “The Real World: Boston.”

From Salon Oct. 27, 2025

“Not a lumberjack, a limberjack. A clog doll. A jigger. Dancing Dan. Shuffling Sam. I call him Mendigo. He keeps me company. Come inside and I’ll let you give it a try.”

From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull

The word “timberbeast” appeared for the first time in The Times yesterday in a story about lumberjacks.

From New York Times Dec. 29, 2022

She was born and raised in this town of 11,000, a member of the Shelton High graduating class of 2006, “Home of the Highclimbers,” named after the lumberjacks when this was logging country.

From Seattle Times Nov. 3, 2022

Dinner: Impossible Robert Irvine is in the forests near Mackinaw City, Mich., to create a Paul Bunyan-sized dinner for 50 lumberjacks and a dish for timber show guests.

From Los Angeles Times Oct. 19, 2021

But along with the lightkeepers’ journals and the usual suspects like Stevenson and Coleridge, and looking at interviews with lumberjacks from the period, we came across the work of Sarah Orne Jewett.

From Slate Oct. 22, 2019

A few, like Joe, were farm boys or lumberjacks or fishermen, the products of foggy coastal villages, damp dairy farms, and smoky lumber towns all over the state.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

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