navvy

[nav-ee]

noun

British Informal.

plural

navvies 

1. an unskilled manual laborer.

navvy

/ ˈnævɪ /

noun

1. informal,  a labourer on a building site, excavations, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of navvy¹

First recorded in 1825–35; short for navigator

Word History and Origins

Origin of navvy¹

C19: shortened from navigator, builder of a _navigation (sense 4)

Example Sentences

They helped build the C&O Canal and worked as navvies, or laborers, in its port.

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He leaves for a better life with his mother’s brother in Leeds, where he becomes a navvy.

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Prof Rotherham said it may have originally arrived with Welsh "navvies digging out the cuttings for the canal systems".

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By 1917, when navvies poured in and construction started on an inland railway to the north, widespread food shortages had led to violent workers’ demonstrations and a near mutiny among the army units.

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The scale of the work can be judged by the group of navvies gathered in the bottom right of the picture.

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