Collier
//ˈkɒlɪə(ɹ)// name, noun, slang
name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A person in the business or occupation of producing or distributing coal (any of several types of carbon fuel).; A person who produces (e.g., digs, mines, gathers) or sells coal (the fossil fuel type), or transports it from underground, from the soil, or from a seashore.
"Near-synonyms: coalminer, coalworker; coalowner, mineowner"
- 2 someone who works in a coal mine wordnet
- 3 A person in the business or occupation of producing or distributing coal (any of several types of carbon fuel).; A person in the business or occupation of producing (and selling) charcoal. dated, historical
"For this reason, the collier took constant care to keep the covering of earth in good order."
- 4 A vessel carrying a bulk cargo of coal.
"By 1830, more than two million tons of coal a year, principally from the North East, arrived in London by coastal collier, and that figure reached three million tons by the 1840s."
- 5 A sailor on such a vessel.
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- 6 A non-traveller. slang
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname originating as an occupation.
- 2 An unincorporated community in Monroe County, Georgia, United States.
- 3 A township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States.
Example
More examples"The collier spent his days deep underground, mining coal in dangerous conditions."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English colier (“charcoal burner”), from col (“coal”).
Etymology 2
Derived from the name of occupation - collier (“charcoal burner”).
Related phrases
More for "collier"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.