fireman
UK /ˈfaɪəmən/ · US /ˈfaɪɹmən/ noun, proper noun
Forms firemen
- noun (firefighting) Someone (especially male) who is skilled in the work of fighting fire.
- noun (rail transport, nautical) A person (originally a man) who keeps the fire going underneath a steam boiler (originally, shoveling coal by hand), particularly on a railroad locomotive or steamship. “The fireman's job was about to get very interesting; they had just run out of coal!”
- noun (rail transport, by extension) An assistant on any locomotive, whether steam-powered or not.
- noun (baseball) A relief pitcher (reflecting the figurative analogy of rescuing the situation).
- noun (mining, historical) A safety inspector in coal mines.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
firefighter smoke eater stoker bakehead reliever relief pitcher fire fighter fire-eater
Etymology
From fire + -man.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fireman”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details