spearman
nounEtymology From spear + -man.
1
One who uses a spear; a soldier or warrior who fights with a spear; a person who hunts with a spear.
- The second Adigar is only entitled to twenty-four spearmen and fifteen whipcrackers.1844, James Selkirk, Recollections of Ceylon, page 65:
- He spoke : the brawny spearman let his cheek Bulge with the unswallow'd piece, and turning stared;1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 79:
2 more examples
- All around here the spearmen would hide, armed with those terrible shovel-balded spears that will kill a bullock at seventy yards.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 75:
- Then an old spearman will speak while they are drinking[.]1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 65:
- Derived terms
- spearmanship