Steersman
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 One who steers a ship or other vessel; the helmsman.
"And as for a tiller, the whale-boat never admits of any such effeminacy; and therefore as in gamming a complete boat’s crew must leave the ship, and hence as the boat steerer or harpooneer is of the number, that subordinate is the steersman upon the occasion, and the captain, having no place to sit in, is pulled off to his visit all standing like a pine tree."
- 2 a man who steers a ship wordnet
Example
More examples"At night, in the moonlight, when all were asleep, except the steersman who stood at the helm, she sat at the side of the ship trying to pierce the clear water with her eyes, and fancied she saw her father's palace, and above it her old grandmother with her silver crown on her head, looking up through the cross currents toward the keel of the ship."
Etymology
From steer + -s- + -man.
More for "steersman"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.