pointsman

American  

[points-muhn] / ˈpɔɪnts mən /

noun

British.

• pointsmen
  plural

1. a railway switchman.

2. a police officer who directs traffic, as at an intersection.

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pointsman British  

/ ˈpɔɪntsˌmæn, -mən /

noun

1. US and Canadian equivalent: switchman.  a person who operates railway points

2. a policeman or traffic warden on point duty

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• pointsmen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pointsman

First recorded in 1840–50; point + -s ³ + man

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pointsman pointsmen

Pompeo had told Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, in a separate meeting in Helsinki that Russia’s pointsman for the Ukraine, Vladislav Surkov, needed to engage constructively with U.S. envoy Kurt Volker.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2018

A pointsman will be expected to notice all signals and to obey them.

From Mr. Punch's Railway Book by Sir John Alexander Hammerton

I were pointsman on the South Eastern, with an only child—a girl As got switched to a houtside porter, though fit to 'ave married a       pearl.

From Successful Recitations by Alfred H. (Alfred Henry) Miles

The number of carriages and passengers was not stated, but the pointsman at the Warrington junction being at his post, waiting for the train, was surprised to hear it coming at a very rapid rate. 

From Railway Adventures and Anecdotes extending over more than fifty years by Various

OZIL, a pointsman at the junction for Dieppe, between the tunnel and the station of Malaunay.

From A Zola Dictionary; the Characters of the Rougon-Macquart Novels of Emile Zola; by J. G Patterson

Intelligent non-commissioned officers and men were converted into shunters, guards, and pointsmen.

From The River War An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan by Winston Churchill

Mr Harding thought that all porters and stokers, guards, breaksmen, pointsmen ought to have an opportunity of going to church, and he hoped that they all had.

From Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

That railway porters, pointsmen, guards, firemen, and drivers are, as Mr. Joynes well urges, often badly paid, and nearly always overworked, is true, but making the railways State property would not necessarily improve this.

From Some Objections To Socialism From "The Atheistic Platform", Twelve Lectures by Charles Bradlaugh

Mr. Harding thought that all porters and stokers, guards, brakesmen, and pointsmen ought to have an opportunity of going to church, and he hoped that they all had.

From Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

On this occasion a number of railway guards and pointsmen had been asked; and never shall I forget the sermon he preached to them.

From The Mapleson Memoirs, vol II 1848-1888 by James H. Mapleson