Word.ws English Dictionary

footplateman

footplateman noun: a railway worker who is either a locomotive engineer or a fireman.

Noun

footplateman (plural footplatemen)

  1. (UK) A railway worker who is either a locomotive engineer or a fireman.
    • The circular attacks the policy of ASLEF, the principal footplatemen's union, for its opposition to pay differentials between main-line drivers and other footplate men, claiming that it destroys ambition and enterprise.1964 May, “News and Comment: Breakaway footplate union”, in Modern Railways, page 293
    • Footplatemen, organised not by the NUR but by ASLEF, had threatened to strike in August 1917 in demand of an eight-hour day.2020 January 2, Conrad Landin, “Strife and strikes in post-war Britain”, in Rail, page 51

Forms of footplateman

pluralfootplatemen

Origin of footplateman

From footplate + -man.

Questions about footplateman

What does footplateman mean?
Footplateman means a railway worker who is either a locomotive engineer or a fireman.
What part of speech is footplateman?
Footplateman is a noun.
What is the plural of footplateman?
The plural of footplateman is footplatemen.

Words near footplateman in the dictionary

  1. footpiece
  2. footpieces
  3. footplate
  4. footplate man
  5. footplate men
  6. footplateman
  7. footplatemen
  8. footplates
  9. footplating
  10. footplay
  11. footplough

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: footplateman (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.

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