lumberjack
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lumberjack
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.
Vocabulary lists containing lumberjack
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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:
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
"The picture showed him with a chainsaw and he was in what you'd call lumberjack gear," Mr Donald said.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2025
The closing moments revealed that he had survived, winding up in a remote community far from Miami and starting a new life as a lumberjack.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2025
“Well, I can’t be a lumberjack, Ma. I got this dead tree of my own.”
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
The fire service said 320 firefighters in 68 fire engines, plus 6 special planes, 9 helicopters and numerous volunteers are fighting the fire, while another 200 lumberjacks are cutting firebreak paths through the forest.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 23, 2022
It’s narrated by Weldon Applegate, a 99-year-old man remembering back to his teenage years, when the long line of lumberjacks in his family seemed like it might be petering out.
From New York Times ● Nov. 8, 2021
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
The lumberjacks train the new guy To fell trees more than 20 feet high: As you chop, hear it crack, Shout “Tim-ber!”
From Washington Post ● Sep. 2, 2021
They even saw a little goblin village in one valley, with lumberjacks hauling huge trees through on wagons.
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
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.
