Word.ws English Dictionary

holdsman

holdsman is the alternative form of holdman.

Meaning of holdman

Noun

holdman (plural holdmen)

  1. A man employed in the hold of a ship to load and unload cargo.
    • However, because the winch drivers' competence is more visible than the holdmen's, winch drivers are more vulnerable to supervision even though options for handling incompetence are limited contractually.1997, David Wellman, The Union Makes Us Strong, page 154

See all 3 meanings of holdman

Forms of holdsman

pluralholdsmen

Origin of holdsman

From hold + -s- + -man.

Questions about holdsman

What is holdsman the alternative form of?
Holdsman is the alternative form of holdman.

Words near holdsman in the dictionary

  1. holds up as
  2. holds up one's end
  3. holds water
  4. holds with
  5. holds with the hare and runs with the hounds
  6. holdsman
  7. holdsmen
  8. Holdsworth
  9. Holdsworths
  10. holdup
  11. holdupper

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holdsman (page history and authors); holdman (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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Cite this entry: “holdsman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holdsman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.