Word.ws English Dictionary

navvies

navvies is the plural of navvy.

navvies is the plural of navvie.

navvies is the third-person singular simple present indicative of navvy.

Meaning of navvy

Noun

navvy (plural navvies)

  1. (UK, historical) A laborer on a civil engineering project such as a canal or railroad.
    • Suppose two lads, fresh from school, go out into the world to earn their living; one becomes a navvy and one a clerk. In five years' time these two young men will probably be very different in appearance from one another. The navvy will have developed his muscles; he will be broad-built...1909, B. Lindsay, Stories of the Universe: Animal Life
  2. an unskilled laborer

See all 3 meanings of navvy

Phrases with navvies

Questions about navvies

What is navvies the plural of?
Navvies is the plural of navvy.

Words near navvies in the dictionary

  1. NavStar
  2. navtemp
  3. navved
  4. navvie
  5. navvied
  6. navvies
  7. navving
  8. navvy
  9. navvying
  10. navy
  11. Navy Base

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: navvies (page history and authors); navvy (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: “navvies.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/navvies. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.