Navvy

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Navvy \Nav"vy\, n.; pl. {Navies}. [Abbreviated fr. navigator.]
     Originally, a laborer on canals for internal navigation;
     hence, a laborer on other public works, as in building
     railroads, embankments, etc. [Eng.]
     [1913 Webster]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  navvy
       n : a laborer who is obliged to do menial work [syn: {drudge}, {peon},
            {galley slave}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  51 Moby Thesaurus words for "navvy":
     blue-collar worker, breadwinner, casual, casual laborer,
     common laborer, day laborer, digger, dredge, dredger, driller,
     employee, excavator, factory worker, flunky, free lance,
     free-lancer, full-time worker, groundhog, hand, industrial worker,
     jobber, jobholder, laborer, laboring man, menial, migrant, miner,
     moiler, office temporary, proletarian, roustabout, salaried worker,
     sandhog, sapper, self-employed person, servant, steam shovel,
     stiff, temporary, toiler, tunneler, wage earner, wage slave,
     wageworker, worker, workgirl, workhand, working girl, workingman,
     workingwoman, workman