woodman
/ˈwʊdmən/
woodman noun: someone who cuts down trees or cuts up, splits, and sells wood.
Noun
woodman (plural woodmen)
- Someone who cuts down trees or cuts up, splits, and sells wood.
- As thro’ the shrilling Vale, or Mountain Ground,
The Labours of the Woodman’s Axe resound;
Blows following Blows are heard re-echoing wide,
While crackling Forests fall on ev’ry side.
Thus echo’d all the Fields with loud Alarms,
So fell the Warriors, and so rung their Arms.1718, Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, London: Bernard Lintot, Book 16, p. 267 - Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it shelter’d me,
And I’ll protect it now.
’Twas my forefather’s hand
That placed it near his cot;
There, woodman, let it stand,
Thy axe shall harm it not!1843, George Pope Morris, “Woodman, Spare That Tree”, in The Deserted Bride; and Other Poems, New York: Appleton, page 39
- Synonyms:
- woodcutter, lumberjack, wooder
- As thro’ the shrilling Vale, or Mountain Ground,
- Someone who lives in the wood and manages it; (by extension) someone who spends time in the woods and has a strong familiarity with that environment.
- Our walk was far among the ancient trees:
There was no road, nor any wood-man’s path,
But the thick umbrage, checking the wild growth
Of weed and sapling […]1800, William Wordsworth, “Poems on the Naming of Places V”, in Lyrical Ballads, with Other Poems, volume 2, London: Longman & Rees, page 195 - “It is strange,” muttered Cardillac, “that so loud a roar in the forest at night should give such little indication of direction. I suppose a true woodman could not only point towards the spot, but might estimate the distance as well. I seem to be a very fool of the forest.”1908, Robert Barr, chapter 14, in Cardillac, 4th edition, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, published 1909
- Synonyms:
- woodsman, forester, forest ranger
- Our walk was far among the ancient trees:
- Someone who makes things from wood.
- Someone who hunts animals in a wood, hunter, huntsman.
- You, Polydote, have proved best woodman and
Are master of the feast: Cadwal and I
Will play the cook and servant; ’tis our match:
The sweat of industry would dry and die,
But for the end it works to.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard... - How daintily, and cunningly you drive me
Up like a Deere to’th toyle, yet I may leape it,
And what’s the woodman then?c. 1611, John Fletcher, The Woman’s Prize, Act IV, Scene 3, in Comedies and Tragedies Written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Gentlemen, London: H. Robinson & H. Moseley, 1647, p. 116
- You, Polydote, have proved best woodman and
- Someone who lives in the woods and is considered to be uncivilized or barbaric, a savage.
- […] yonder in that faithfull wildernesse
Huge monsters haunt, and many dangers dwell;
Dragons, and Minotaures, and feendes of hell,
And many wilde woodmen, which robbe & rend
All traveilers […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 40 - There between the trees
The prying Fauns and Woodmen dark
And prick-ear’d Satyrs her did mark,1909, Maurice Hewlett, “Leto’s Child”, in Artemision: Idylls and Songs, London: Elkin Mathews, page 30
- […] yonder in that faithfull wildernesse
Proper noun capitalized: Woodman
Woodman
- A surname.
woodman meaning in Tamil and Urdu
woodman in Tamil
- காடு வாழ்நர், காடு மேற்பார்வையாளர், விறகு வெட்டி, மரம்வெட்டி
woodman in Urdu
- جنگل بان, لکڑ ہارا, شکاری
Examples of woodman in a sentence
- Salter-Townshend on a tour of all her rental properties, which ranged from a woodman’s cottage on the old Somerville estate to a tower in the harbor-front castle.1990 July 15, Pamela Redmond Satran, “Ireland with kids: The fairy tale comes alive”, in Washington Post:
- The second examination is for a woodman’s badge.1997, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 3, in Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life, New York: Penguin, page 15:
Synonyms of woodman
Forms of woodman
| plural | woodmen |
|---|
Origin of woodman
From Middle English woodeman, wodeman, from Old English wudemann, wudumann (“woodman”), equivalent to wood + -man.
Words formed from woodman
Questions about woodman
- What does woodman mean?
- Woodman means someone who cuts down trees or cuts up, splits, and sells wood.
- What is woodman in Tamil?
- Woodman in Tamil is காடு வாழ்நர், காடு மேற்பார்வையாளர், விறகு வெட்டி. See Woodman meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use woodman in a sentence?
- Salter-Townshend on a tour of all her rental properties, which ranged from a woodman’s cottage on the old Somerville estate to a tower in the harbor-front castle.
- What part of speech is woodman?
- Woodman can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce woodman?
- Woodman is pronounced /ˈwʊdmən/.
- What is the plural of woodman?
- The plural of woodman is woodmen.
Words near woodman in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: woodman (page history and authors); Woodman (page history and authors); woodman (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); woodman (Urdu 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-woodman.wav.
Cite this entry: “woodman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/woodman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.