noun ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A railroad employee responsible for a train's brakes, couplings etc. US
2. 2
   a male railroad employee responsible for a train's brakes wordnet
3. 3
   A person employed to work the steam engine or other machinery that raises the coal from the mine. historical
4. 4
   A person who pulls the brake lever in the sport of bobsleigh.

Synonyms

All synonyms

brakesmanbrakesmanbutcherconductordispatcherfireman

Etymology

From brake + -man.

Related phrases

steam engine

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.