woodmen

Noun

woodman (plural woodmen)

1. 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

   Synonyms:

   woodcutter, lumberjack, wooder

2. 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

   Synonyms:

   woodsman, forester, forest ranger

3. Someone who makes things from wood.
4. (obsolete) 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...
5. (obsolete) 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

See all 6 meanings of woodman