Yardsman
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The foreman or man in charge of the activities in a yard (train yard, prison yard, stock yard, etc).
"He had been sentenced to imprisonment, but without the imposition of hard labour, and he had purchased his post of yardsman in the division allotted to those prisoners, equally with himself, exempt from labour—a class which, at that period, passed their time in utter idleness."
- 2 A general laborer in a yard.
"The duties of a yardsman shall consist of general labourer's work, including unloading and loading goods, stacking and re-stacking material, preparing and making fire for tyring, carrying water for tyring, putting on and taking off wheels, lifting and helping to lift, carrying generally."
Example
More examples"He had been sentenced to imprisonment, but without the imposition of hard labour, and he had purchased his post of yardsman in the division allotted to those prisoners, equally with himself, exempt from labour—a class which, at that period, passed their time in utter idleness."
Etymology
From yards + man.
More for "yardsman"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.