nightman

Noun

nightman (plural nightmen)

1. (historical) A person whose job is cleaning cesspools or sewers, or emptying privies by night.
   • Near-synonyms: nightsoiler, shit-carter
   • That the Laystalls be removed as far as may be out of the City, and common Passages, and that no Nightman or other be suffered to empty a Vault into any Garden near about the City.1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt (etc.), p. 54

   Synonyms:

   night soil man, nightsoiler, shit-carter

2. (dated) A male night shift worker.
   • Most men who are of sufficient intelligence and moral character to make thoroughly satisfactory block signalmen will naturally seek a respite occasionally from such a confining routine, and if they cannot accomplish this without securing a substitute at their own expense they are under constant...1907 April 5, The Railroad Gazette, volume 42, number 14, page 482
   • Doorman John Healy comes to work Sunday morning bringing a partly finished bottle of whiskey. He greets his colleague, George Tiernan, nightman, with the suggestion that they “kill the quart” before Mr. Tiernan goes home.1927 December 11, “Vandals”, in Time
3. A nightwatchman; a guard who works at night.