noun
-
a man who is employed in manual labour or who works an industrial machine
-
a craftsman of skill as specified
a bad workman
Gender
See -man.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of workman
before 900; Middle English werkman, Old English weorcman. See work, man
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.
See Examples For:
He occasionally overburdens the reader with minutiae of political and organizational rivalries and is more workman than stylist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
He sent a text message to Ean asking why the workman had taken his bin.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2025
Navy workman jackets appeared in the lockers of Chargers players.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 13, 2024
No confirmed deaths have been reported from any of the recent eruptions, but a workman was declared missing after falling into a fissure opened by the volcano.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 16, 2024
He walked and worked among his villagers, thought of their welfare, and could tell the good workman from the bad.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
They, like the workmen loading barrels on the street, are all attending to the business of the once Dutch, now fully American port city we call New York.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
When BBC Scotland News visited, two workmen painting road markings said they had been "hassled" by locals while going about their jobs.
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2026
They also smuggled in equipment and paid workmen to rehabilitate water and electricity infrastructure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2025
The same word was written again multiple times on Tuesday while white paint was thrown over the picture, with workmen acting quickly to clean it.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2025
In the driveway, the workmen is setting in they truck, eating they own lunches.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
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.
