stoker

¹ American  

[stoh-ker] / ˈstoʊ kər /

noun

1. a person or thing that stokes. stoke.

2. a laborer employed to tend and fuel a furnace, especially a furnace used to generate steam, as on a steamship.

3. Chiefly British. the fireman on a locomotive.

4. a mechanical device for supplying coal or other solid fuel to a furnace.

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Stoker ² American  

[stoh-ker] / ˈstoʊ kər /

noun

1. Bram Abraham Stoker, 1847–1912, British novelist, born in Ireland: creator of Dracula.

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Stoker ¹ British  

/ ˈstəʊkə /

noun

1. Bram, original name Abraham Stoker. 1847–1912, Irish novelist, author of Dracula (1897)

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stoker ² British  

/ ˈstəʊkə /

noun

1. a person employed to tend a furnace, as on a steamship

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Other Word Forms

• stokerless adjective

Etymology

Origin of stoker

1650–60; < Dutch, equivalent to stok ( en ) to stoke ¹ + -er -er ¹

Example Sentences

This Irish stoker with a wild temper washes up on the barge where Anna is now living with her father.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025

His father, a man Stamp once described as "emotionally closed down", was a ship's stoker and often away from home.

From BBC • Aug. 17, 2025

Ditlev later became a coal stoker, but he was frequently unemployed.

From New York Times • Jan. 7, 2023

“They are blind,” he thinks, “to Mahmood Hussein Mattan and all his real manifestations: the tireless stoker, the poker shark, the elegant Wanderer, the love-starved husband, the soft-hearted father.”

From Washington Post • Dec. 14, 2021

‘Jules-Albert finished first in the Paris-Rouen motorcar race back in 1895, but he wasn’t awarded the prize because his steam car used a stoker.’

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan