collier
nounUK /ˈkɒlɪə(ɹ)/ · US /ˈkɑliɚ/
Etymology From Middle English colier, colyer, alteration of earlier coler, collere (“one who makes or sells charcoal”), from Old English *colere (“collier”), equivalent to coal + -ier.
› A person in the business or occupation of…
1
A person who produces (e.g., digs, mines, gathers) or sells coal (the fossil fuel type), or transports it from underground, from the soil, or from a seashore.
- The Black Dwarfs wear black jackets and caps, are not handsome like the others, but on the contrary are horridly ugly, with weeping eyes, like blacksmiths and colliers.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 283:
- Near-synonyms: coalminer, coalworker; coalowner, mineowner
2
Dated, Historical A person in the business or occupation of producing (and selling) charcoal.
- For this reason, the collier took constant care to keep the covering of earth in good order.1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 224:
- By 1830, more than two million tons of coal a year, principally from the North East, arrived in London by coastal collier, and that figure reached three million tons by the 1840s.2021 December 1, Nigel Harris, “St Pancras and King's Cross: 1947”, in RAIL, number 945, page 42:
5
Slang, Used by the traveller community A non-traveller.
- Derived terms
- grim-the-collier
- Related terms
- Collier Street, Colliers Wood, colliery, mineral coal, seacoal, collie