raftsman

American  

[rafts-muhn, rahfts-] / ˈræfts mən, ˈrɑfts- /

noun

• raftsmen
  plural

1. a person who manages or is employed on a raft.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• raftsmen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of raftsman

First recorded in 1770–80; raft ¹ + 's ¹ + -man

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

raftsman raftsmen

But many Chinese tourists nowadays skip the bamboo-raft river cruise, which costs about $30 for two people, according to Wu Fandong, a 45-year-old raftsman.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

French forms are freely turned into pure Canadianisms, like cageux, raftsman, boucane, brushwood smoke, portage, &c.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 2 "Camorra" to "Cape Colony" by Various

Here he was, a raftsman plying between Cracow and Warsaw, those two hot-beds of Polish patriotism—a mere piece of human driftwood on the river.

From The Vultures by Henry Seton Merriman

He was their raftsman; he had been seen out on the log boom, pike pole in hand, shoving logs in to the endless chain elevator that drew them up to the seas.

From Kindred of the Dust by Peter B. (Peter Bernard) Kyne

During the week he thought frequently of telephoning up to Darrow and asking if they still had the same raftsman on the pay-roll, but his pride forbade this.

From Kindred of the Dust by Peter B. (Peter Bernard) Kyne

When you read about Mark Twain's Mississippi raftsmen and pilots, or Bret Harte's Western gold miners, they seem more remote than the cannibals of the Stone Age.

From Time Magazine Archive

Young Heyerdahl entertained a theory that Incan raftsmen might thus have freighted their civiliza tion to Polynesia.

From Time Magazine Archive

Some, who are almost starving, ingratiate themselves with the raftsmen.

From Contemporary Russian Novelists by Serge Persky

When the curtain fell on the last act, woodsmen and raftsmen and their newfound friends in the village returned to the riverfront tavern to make a night of it.

From Blue Ridge Country by Erskine Caldwell

When these raftsmen found themselves the possessors of so much money, they could hardly contain themselves for joy.

From Tales of the Caravan, Inn, and Palace by Wilhelm Hauff