tradesman
nounEtymology From trade + -s- + -man.
1
A skilled manual worker (implied male).
2
Dated A manual worker (implied male) who visits private premises to perform his job.
- Tradesmen should use the rear entrance.
3
Dated One who works in trade (commerce); a shopkeeper.
- After this memorable event, I went to the hatter's, and the bootmaker's, and the hosier's, and felt rather like Mother Hubbard's dog whose outfit required the services of so many trades. […] It was not necessary to explain everywhere that I had come into a handsome property; but whenever I said anything to that effect, it followed that the officiating tradesman ceased to have his attention diverted through the window by the High-street, and concentrated his mind upon me.1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations:
- During the morning she had seen several people and quite a number (comparatively) of tradesmen’s vans.1932, Dorothy L. Sayers, chapter II, in Have His Carcase:
- Antonyms
- tradeswoman
- Derived terms
- master tradesman, tradesmanlike, tradesmanly, tradesmanship
- Hypernyms
- skilled worker, tradesperson, tradie