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  

/ -mən, ˈpɔɪntsˌmæn /

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

It might have been far otherwise had Sam been a pointsman!

From The Iron Horse by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)

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

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 Miles, Alfred H. (Alfred Henry)

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 Patterson, J. G

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 Mapleson, James H.

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 Trollope, Anthony

Shunting is sometimes a tedious process, involving much hauling, pushing, puffing, and whistling, on the part of the engine, and uncoupling of trucks and shifting of points on the part of pointsmen and porters.

From The Iron Horse by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)

Some people are so like eternal pointsmen lying in wait by the line, to shunt one's train of thought from one rail to another.

From The Home and the World by Tagore, Rabindranath

Only on these conditions can a railway manager be sure that his pointsmen are on the job.

From The French Revolution - Volume 1 by Durand, John