section hand

noun

Railroads.

1. a person who works on a section gang.

Word History and Origins

Origin of section hand¹

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

Lots of section hands went back and forth, Mexicans, some Hindus.

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One day they were telegraphers, day laborers, railroad section hands and the next they were colossal figures of American enterprise.

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I found only one man, the cook, at the Section house this time, the section hands having gone to work.

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And that, as it happened, was exactly the place from which it was revealed to the choleric near-Shuswap section hand.

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By and by the cars sped past a small stone hut and he wondered whether he was the man who had not long since stolen down at night to meet the section hand.

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