stevedore
Syllables: ste·ve·dore/ˈstiːvəˌdɔː(ɹ)/US/ˈstivəˌdɔɹ/
stevedore noun: a dockworker involved in loading and unloading cargo, or in supervising such work.
Noun
stevedore (plural stevedores)
- A dockworker involved in loading and unloading cargo, or in supervising such work.
- Stowadores.1788 July 2, The Massachusetts Spy, Boston, Mass.: Zechariah Fowle, Isaiah Thomas, →OCLC, page 3
- The work of discharging and loading cargoes other than coal is undertaken by master stevedores, who are employed by the shipowner.1945 January and February, T. F. Cameron, “Dock Working”, in Railway Magazine, page 12
- Synonyms:
- docker, dockworker, longshoreman, wharfie
Verb
stevedore (third-person singular simple present stevedores, present participle stevedoring, simple past and past participle stevedored)
- To load or unload a ship's cargo.
- During the year 334,242 tons of cargo were stevedored and 933,092 tons were handled and transferred.1914, Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Panama Rail Road Company to the Stockholders, New York, N.Y.: Panama Rail Road Company, →OCLC, page 11
- [I]n Barcelona, when he was stevedoring at the docks […]1963, Thomas Pynchon, V., a Novel, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J. B. Lippincott & Co., →OCLC
stevedore meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada
stevedore in Tamil
- கப்பற் சுமையாள்
stevedore in Urdu
- خلاصی
stevedore in Bengali
- জাহাজের মাল বোঝাই, খালাসকারী শ্রমিক
stevedore in Kannada
- ಹಡಗುಕೂಲಿ, ಬಂದರಿನ ಕೂಲಿ, ಹಡಗಿನ ಕೂಲಿಯಾಳು
More languagesFewer languages
- stevedore in Tagalog
- estibador
Examples of stevedore in a sentence
- The stevedore superintendent and hatch foreman occupy strategic positions from a safety viewpoint.1956, Maritime Cargo Transportation Conference (U.S.), “The Longshore Industry and Its Hazards”, in Longshore Safety Survey: A Survey of...
- In following up the work of their employers stevedores might be required to work sometimes at the Victoria Dock, sometimes at the East India Dock, and so on.1969, John [Christopher] Lovell, “The Earliest Unions, 1870–89”, in Stevedores and Dockers: A Study of Trade Unionism in the Port of...
- [T]he stevedore works for the account of he who has requested his services, and he is liable only to this person, who alone can bring an action as against him.2003, Ralph De Wit, “The Concept of Statutory Rights of Action in Carriage of Goods”, in Eric Van Hooydonk, editor, English and Continental...
- I stevedored [railway] ties, a lot of those devils.1976, Bruce Levene et al., Mendocino County Remembered: An Oral History, volumes I (A–L), [Ukaih?] Calif.: Mendocino County Historical...
Synonyms of stevedore
Forms of stevedore
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | stevedores |
| alternative form | stowadore |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | stevedores |
| present participle | stevedoring |
| past participle | stevedored |
| past | stevedored |
Origin of stevedore
From Spanish estibador (cognate with Portuguese estivador, and compare Medieval Latin stivator), from estivar, estibar (“to load”), from Medieval Latin stivare, stīpāre (compare Italian stivare, stipare), the present active infinitive of stīpō (“to cram, fill, stuff”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *steypos, which is from the root Proto-Indo-European *steyp-. It is cognate with stiff through Proto-Indo-European. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word was attested in 1788 in the early form stowadore (see the quotations). It was included in the 1st edition of Webster’s Dictionary (1828) as stevedore.
Words formed from stevedore
Questions about stevedore
- What does stevedore mean?
- Stevedore means a dockworker involved in loading and unloading cargo, or in supervising such work.
- What is stevedore in Tamil?
- Stevedore in Tamil is கப்பற் சுமையாள். See Stevedore meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use stevedore in a sentence?
- The stevedore superintendent and hatch foreman occupy strategic positions from a safety viewpoint.
- What part of speech is stevedore?
- Stevedore can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce stevedore?
- Stevedore is pronounced /ˈstiːvəˌdɔː(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of stevedore?
- The plural of stevedore is stevedores.
Words near stevedore in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stevedore (page history and authors); stevedore (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stevedore (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stevedore (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stevedore (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-stevedore.opus, en-au-stevedore.ogg.
Cite this entry: “stevedore.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stevedore. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.