pointsman
noun
a railway switchman.
pointsmen
-
pluralof pointsman.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
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
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 R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
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
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 Rabindranath Tagore
Only on these conditions can a railway manager be sure that his pointsmen are on the job.
From The French Revolution - Volume 1 by John Durand
