battler

Noun

battler (plural battlers)

1. One who wages battle against an enemy; a soldier; a general.
2. (Australia, dated) An itinerant worker or unemployed person.
   • “But look here!” interrupted the Pilgrim, desperately, “we can′t afford to wait! We′re only ‘battlers’, me and my mate, pickin′ up crumbs by the wayside. We′ve got to catch the——”1900, Henry Lawson, The Shanty-Keeper′s Wife, Over the Sliprails, Gutenberg eBook # 1313
3. One who works hard in the face of adversity.
   • Dave Rust and Scotty Salmon failed at their Mount Elizabeth venture and are now again at the old love, Karunjie. Good luck to such battlers.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 315
   • In an earlier era Australia was a nation of battlers, of working people who were hardened by the rigours of economic depression and war, and, if not proud of their penury, certainly not ashamed of it. The Aussie battler became an icon of Australian political folklore, and the image persists into...2006, Clive Hamilton, What′s Left? The Death of Social Democracy, page 27