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oilman

[oil-man, -muh n]
noun, plural oil·men [oil-men, -muh n] /ˈɔɪlˌmɛn, -mən/.
  1. a person who owns or operates oil wells or an executive in the petroleum industry.
  2. a person who retails or delivers oil, especially fuel oil for furnaces.
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Origin of oilman

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at oil, man1

Usage note

See -man.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for oilman

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • The custom is still kept up by the descendants of the oilman.

  • He stopped at the shop of an oilman, and offered him the honey for sale, and he bought it.

  • The oilman's ox stands as the accepted type of a weary toiler.

    Beast and Man in India

    John Lockwood Kipling

  • The potter supplies him with pots, the weaver with cloth, and the oilman with oil.

    The Case For India

    Annie Besant

  • Then she went and lodged with an oilman, who had great jars full of oil.

    Deccan Nursery Tales

    Charles Augustus Kincaid

British Dictionary definitions for oilman

oilman

noun plural -men
  1. a person who owns or operates oil wells
  2. a person who makes or sells oil
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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