trainer
Americannoun
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a person or thing that trains.
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a staff member on an athletic team who gives first aid and therapy to injured players.
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a person who trains athletes; coach.
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a person who trains racehorses or other animals for contests, shows, or performances.
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an airplane or a simulated aircraft used in training aircrew members, especially pilots.
noun
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a person who trains athletes in a sport
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a piece of equipment employed in training, such as a simulated aircraft cockpit
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horse racing a person who schools racehorses and prepares them for racing
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(plural) an informal name for training shoes
Etymology
Origin of trainer
Explanation
A trainer is someone who teaches or coaches someone, like the trainer at the gym who promises that she'll have you ready to run a marathon in four months. Some trainers can teach you how to do sit ups, while others can instruct you to program a computer or be an effective leader. Dog trainers teach dogs to follow commands — and they teach dog owners to give commands effectively. The noun trainer comes from the verb train, "to discipline or teach," from an earlier sense, "to manipulate to bring a desired form," the way a gardener trains a rose to grow up a trellis.
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.
Trainer Cherie DeVaux says Golden Tempo won’t run in the Preakness because the horse needs more time to recover after the Kentucky Derby.
From Los Angeles Times • May 11, 2026
Trainer Cherie DeVaux has spent decades honing her skills.
From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026
Trainer Brad Cox is horse racing’s leading trainer, but his only victory in the Run for the Roses came out of a disqualification.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 2, 2026
He has personally brokered Pokémon sales worth over £2m, including an £84,000 Pokémon Trainer, a £442,800 Charizard and an £832,000 Pikachu Illustrator.
From BBC • Apr. 16, 2026
Trainer George Mohr remembered that Woolf sometimes rode while appearing strangely ashen, while Woolf’s friend Sonny Greenberg recalled incidents in which he found the rider slumped in the jockeys’ room, too ill to speak.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
