dragsmen

Noun

dragsman (plural dragsmen)

1. (historical) A driver of a carriage, coach, or drag, for public transport, private hire, or as a household servant; coachman.
   • Some years since, on a journey into Kent, and sitting on the box beside the dragsman, I was surprised to see him turn out of a fine piece of road which had the most moderate, and, in my idea, most insignificant slope, in order to whip his horses over a deep and fresh laid piece of gravel.1829, John Lawrence, The Horse in All His Varieties and Uses, page 198
2. (obsolete) One who races horses; an amateur jockey.
   • Even those who make the best use of our system of education, and whose accomplishments at quitting college are not confined to being a capital rower and a " prime dragsman," learn very little or nothing that is of use to them in after life ;1830, Samuel Beazley, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, The Oxonians: A Glance at Society - Volume 1, page 75
3. (historical) A thief who cuts the luggage from carriages.
   • In consequence of the great improvement in the make of travelling carriages, there are now few opportunities for the dragsman to exercise his calling in cutting off trunks fastened behind those vehicles, so that the thieves who have a preference for this mode of plunder, are now constrained to...1833, Old Bailey Experience, page 423
4. One who drags a body of water in search of something that is submerged.
   • Ten figures of eight cut in five minutes -- ice broken -- dreadful catastrophe -- a score of skaiters fell in -- Humane Society called out -- Drags and dragsmen in full cry.1827 January 1, “Quadrille Conversations”, in The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, volume 19
5. One who moves the carts or sledges at a mine; a putter.
   • On the coal being detached in the manner above described, a corve, tub, or basket, is then brought to the spot on a four-wheeled train, by a man and boy, technically called a " dragsman and foal," and when filled with the scattered fragments, it is dragged to the bottom of the shaft, hooked to the...1834, Charles Knight, The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, page 127
6. One who lays down the scent trail for a hunt.
   • The country to be ridden over is selected the day before the run by the huntsman, who walks over the whole line with the dragsman, the legitimacy of the trail being assured by no mark of any kind being left on the line except on fences in which there is barbed wire.1898, Country Life Illustrated - Volume 3, page 582