navvy
Americannoun
-
navvies
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of navvy
First recorded in 1825–35; short for navigator
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:
The effect wasn’t androgynous so much as deeply disconcerting: Priest was, in writer Julie Burchill’s memorable assessment, “built like a hod-carrier” and looked “like a navvy who’d stolen all your makeup”.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 5, 2020
They were known as the East London Group, and among their ranks were humble office clerks, a navvy, a window cleaner, a shop assistant, a printer, a basket-weaver and an errand boy.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2017
He is also likened to a navvy, a sweep, a stiff Dutch doll, and an immense feather mattress.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 24, 2012
Nevertheless, Author Mason can keep a story rolling like a navvy with a barrel, and that one perilous, amazing skill makes it hard to ignore what's happening.
From Time Magazine Archive
But what a dedly hinsult to one of the werry noblest of all noble perfessions, to compare for usefulness a mere railway navvy to a great Chef.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, November 5, 1887 by Various
They helped build the C&O Canal and worked as navvies, or laborers, in its port.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 4, 2020
To build the Paris-Rouen-Le Havre line in 1841-7, they “imported” not only an engineer, but also thousands of British navvies, miners, bricklayers and mechanics.
From Time ● Oct. 26, 2016
Yet although 150 years separates them, the construction techniques used by the navvies and labourers who dug the Tube are at the heart of the capital's next-generation underground railway.
From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2013
I'm not advocating navvies but maybe we need a touch of 19th-century confidence.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 6, 2011
This consists of rough boarding put along the sides of the trenches and wedged tight with waling pieces and struts; this work is done by navvies.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 6 "Foraminifera" to "Fox, Edward" by Various
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