Sanman

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A New York City sanitation department worker: a garbage collector. New-York-City

    "Sanmen get more on-the-job injuries than either policemen or firemen. Many of them strain their backs, undramatically but painfully, because, being so strong, they may forget to bend their knees when they're hoisting a garbage can."

Example

More examples

"Sanmen get more on-the-job injuries than either policemen or firemen. Many of them strain their backs, undramatically but painfully, because, being so strong, they may forget to bend their knees when they're hoisting a garbage can."

Etymology

Shortening of sanitation + man.

Related phrases

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