sandhog
verbEtymology From sand + hog, perhaps alluding to a hog (“animal of the Suidae family, especially a boar, pig, or warthog”) digging in sand.
- Derived terms
- sandhogging
sandhog
nounUK /ˈsændhɒɡ/ · US /ˈsændhɔɡ/
Etymology From sand + hog, perhaps alluding to a hog (“animal of the Suidae family, especially a boar, pig, or warthog”) digging in sand.
1
US, Also, Figuratively, Slang A person employed to dig tunnels, or (more generally) to work underground or under water.
- Sandhogs working behind a hydraulic shield excavated the riverbed silt inch by inch and installed linking sections of cast-iron tubes as they went. The digging chamber was filled with compressed air pumped in from the surface. The work was dangerous. The men who did the work, the sandhogs, were considered heroes.1975, E.L. Doctorow, chapter XIII, in Ragtime, page 77: