Word.ws English Dictionary

steam navvy

steam navvy noun: a steam-powered excavator used in making docks, canals, etc.

Noun

steam navvy (plural steam navvies)

  1. (historical) A steam-powered excavator used in making docks, canals, etc.
    • Three steam navvies, 350 men, 5 locomotives, and 120 wagons, were employed to remove the one and a half million tons of debris.1940 July, “The Why and the Wherefore: Chevet Tunnel Demolition, L.M.S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 430
    • A steam navvy was very useful for filling wagons with material from a nearby colliery for an embankment at Camerton. […] Also in September, steam navvies were in use at Combe Hay and Dunkerton, and the foundations of Dunkerton Station were in a forward state.1953 April, Colin G. Maggs, “The Hallatrow-Limpley Stoke Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 267, column 1

Forms of steam navvy

pluralsteam navvies

Questions about steam navvy

What does steam navvy mean?
Steam navvy means a steam-powered excavator used in making docks, canals, etc.
What part of speech is steam navvy?
Steam navvy is a noun.
What is the plural of steam navvy?
The plural of steam navvy is steam navvies.

Words near steam navvy in the dictionary

  1. steam locomotives
  2. steam locos
  3. steam lorries
  4. steam lorry
  5. steam navvies
  6. steam navvy
  7. steam off
  8. steam organ
  9. steam organs
  10. steam piano
  11. steam pianos

Source and license

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