Word.ws English Dictionary

secondman

secondman noun: a driver's assistant on a diesel or electric locomotive.

Noun

secondman (plural secondmen)

  1. (UK) A driver's assistant on a diesel or electric locomotive.
    • The secondman looks back from 'Slim Jim' Class 33 No. 33211 as it trundles through Gravesend station with a permanent way train in 1977. The first wagon's sides are literally bulging at the seams with ballast spoil.2018, Andy Gibbs, The Southern Region in the 1970s and 1980s, Amberley Publishing →ISBN, page 12, photo caption
    • And instead of carrying commuters, the only people on many evening trains between Hatfield and St Albans were the driver and secondman.2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, page 50

Forms of secondman

pluralsecondmen
alternative formsecond man

Origin of secondman

From second (“2nd”) + -man.

Questions about secondman

What does secondman mean?
Secondman means a driver's assistant on a diesel or electric locomotive.
What part of speech is secondman?
Secondman is a noun.
What is the plural of secondman?
The plural of secondman is secondmen.

Words near secondman in the dictionary

  1. seconding
  2. secondings
  3. secondiparous
  4. secondlong
  5. secondly
  6. secondman
  7. secondmen
  8. secondment
  9. secondments
  10. secondmost
  11. secondness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: secondman (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: “secondman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/secondman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.