stoker
UK /ˈstəʊkə/ · US /ˈstoʊkɚ/ noun, proper noun
Forms stokers
- noun A person who stokes, especially one on a steamship or steam train, who stokes coal in the boilers.
- noun A device for stoking a fire; a poker.
- noun A device that feeds coal into a furnace, etc., automatically.
- noun A person who pedals on the back of a tandem bicycle.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle Dutch stoker (“stoker”), from Middle Dutch stoken (“to stoke, incite”, literally “to poke, jab, thrust”), ultimately equivalent to stoke + -er. More at stoke.
Compare typologically Russian кочега́р (kočegár) (akin to кочерга́ (kočergá, “poker”)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun One who is employed to tend a furnace and supply it with fuel, especially the furnace of a locomotive or of a marine steam boiler; also, a machine for feeding fuel to a fire.
- noun A fire poker. [R.] C. Richardson (Dict.).
Etymology [D. See Stoke, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stoker”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details