Crossword clues for navvy
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Navvy \Nav"vy\, n.; pl. Navies. [Abbreviated fr. navigator.] Originally, a laborer on canals for internal navigation; hence, a laborer on other public works, as in building railroads, embankments, etc. [Eng.]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"laborer on a canal or railroad," 1832, colloquial shortening of navigator (q.v.) in its sense of "one who digs navigation canals."
Wiktionary
n. (context British English) a laborer on a civil engineering project such as a canal or railroad vb. (context British intransitive English) To carry out physical labor on a civil engineering project.
WordNet
n. a laborer who is obliged to do menial work [syn: drudge, peon, galley slave]
Wikipedia
Navvy, a shorter form of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and earth moving machinery. The term was coined in the late 18th century in Great Britain when numerous canals were being built, which were also sometimes known as "navigations", or "eternal navigations", intended to last forever all.
Usage examples of "navvy".
He landed beside a navvy and followed the half-blind thing as it rolled into the factory.
They sapped each navvy, powering them down enough to pry out some portable power cells, but not so far that the navvy would register a malf.
It was a three-eyed navvy, with skin of burnished organiform and blunt brass seize-and-draw hands.
If it was a mere navvy, or even another Crafter, that meant the mechs had added another hateful ability to their riverrun of innovation.
Yet Killeen felt nothing awry, but the crosshatched navvy was odd enough to warrant remembering.
One had the same brushed, crosshatched alum carapace he had seen earlier, something new in navvy design.
The first navvy to reach the base encountered a piece of the Mantis and hoisted it aboard, fitting it securely atop the carryrack.
One navvy sprouted a set of finepointed tools and began to take apart a chunky, half-ruined segment of the Mantis.
On the night watch Shibo had spotted a navvy reconning them from a distant hill.
Losing the navvy before had chewed at him and now he took off at a quick pace, boots on full.
Only when he crested the rise did he think that the navvy might have been with the Mantis, and when the idea struck him he let his momentum carry him down into a sheltering hillock of soft grass.
Just the figure of the navvy making good speed downhill, heading right.
This might well be a Mantis navvy, but even so, navvys were dumb and vulnerable.
Quickly he fired a burst at the place where the navvy, still out of sight, would probably be.
The navvy made a quick motion and a dark spot came up the slope fast and low and hit him in the face.