Word.ws English Dictionary

chinaman

/ˈt͡ʃaɪnəmən/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈt͡ʃɑenəmən/

chinaman noun: a dealer in porcelain (china).

Noun (1)

chinaman (plural chinamen)

  1. (obsolete) A dealer in porcelain (china).

Noun (2)

chinaman (plural chinamen)

  1. (dated) A left-arm unorthodox bowling action (left-arm wrist-spin).
    • Several cricketers came up to them and asked Pradeep about his effortless action mimicry and his promising chinaman bowling.2011, Shehan Karunatilaka, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, Jonathan Cape, page 103
  2. A spin bowler who uses such an action.
  3. A ball delivered with such an action.

Noun (3) capitalized: Chinaman

Chinaman (plural Chinamen)

  1. (dated, offensive) A Chinese person, or person of Chinese descent.
    • A disorderly Chinaman is rare, and a lazy one does not exist. So long as a Chinaman has strength to use his hands he needs no support from anybody; white men often complain of want of work, but a Chinaman offers no such complaint; he always manages to find something to do.[…]Any white man can swear...1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “”, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 391
    • Another favorite pastime of the Highbinder who is usually a loafer, is to levy blackmail on a wealthy Chinaman.[…]If it were not that the Chinamen kill only men of their own race and let alone all other men, the citizens of San Francisco would have sacked and burned Chinatown.1906, Hubert D. Russell, editor, Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror, 1906, published 2003, page 251
    Synonyms:
    Chinaperson
  2. A sailing ship of the 18th and 19th centuries engaged in the Old China Trade.
  3. (US, obsolete, offensive, slang) Addiction from a narcotic, especially heroin.
    • Chinaman half in and half out of the door. Codeine and goof balls, and complete discouragement.1952 November 5, William S. Burroughs, “To Allen Ginsberg”, in Oliver Harris, editor, The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959, New York: Penguin, published 1993, →ISBN, page 140

Synonyms of chinaman

Forms of chinaman

pluralchinamen
pluralChinamen

Plural of chinaman: chinamen

Origin of chinaman

From china (“porcelain”) + -man.

From Chinaman, a dated, now offensive term for a Chinese person. Compare Chinese (“unfamiliar, unexpected”). Named in reference to Ellis Achong, a West Indian player of Chinese descent.

From Chinese Pidgin English. Calque of Chinese 中國人 /中国人 (Zhōngguórén) ("China + -man"). Applied also to ships by analogy with East Indiaman.

Words formed from chinaman

Phrases with chinaman

Questions about chinaman

What does chinaman mean?
Chinaman means a dealer in porcelain (china).
What part of speech is chinaman?
Chinaman is a noun.
How do you pronounce chinaman?
Chinaman is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃaɪnəmən/.
What is the plural of chinaman?
The plural of chinaman is chinamen.

Words near chinaman in the dictionary

  1. chinagraphs
  2. Chinahat
  3. chinaldine
  4. chinaldines
  5. chinalike
  6. chinaman
  7. Chinaman on one's back
  8. Chinaman's chance
  9. Chinaman's chance in hell
  10. Chinaman's Peak
  11. Chinamanfish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chinaman (page history and authors); Chinaman (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-chinaman.ogg.

Cite this entry: “chinaman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chinaman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.