"pointsman" meaning in All languages combined

See pointsman on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: pointsmen [plural]
Etymology: From points + man. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|points|man}} points + man Head templates: {{en-noun|pointsmen}} pointsman (plural pointsmen)
  1. (rail transport, chiefly British) A man in charge of railroad points (switches). Tags: British Synonyms: switchman Translations (a man in charge of railroad points or switches): стрелочник (streločnik) [masculine] (Bulgarian), wisselwachter (Dutch), strelocnikka (Ingrian), свр́тничар (svŕtničar) [masculine] (Macedonian), коляйопреводнїк (koljajoprevodnjik) [masculine, person] (Pannonian Rusyn), zwrotniczy [masculine] (Polish), ਕਾਂਟੇਵਾਲਾ (kāṇṭevālā) [masculine] (Punjabi)

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_text": "From points + man.",
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
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            ],
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            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1955 April, R. H. Warring, “Some Early Railway Signals”, in Railway Magazine, page 231:",
          "text": "The signalman, as such, was unknown at first. At junctions, or for shunting, the pointsman was responsible both for setting the points and working the appropriate signals, the two being independent. As a result, accidents were comparatively frequent, and the pointsman's job was, at best, a hazardous one.",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "2021 October 20, Dr Joseph Brennan, “A key part of our diverse railway heritage”, in RAIL, number 942, page 57:",
          "text": "At their point of origin, constructing these boxes presented railway companies with an attractive proposition: to remove the need for pointsmen and flagmen operating at several ground-level locations around a railway site by housing one or two men in a signal structure.",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A man in charge of railroad points (switches)."
      ],
      "id": "en-pointsman-en-noun-RI3p3Me4",
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        ],
        [
          "points",
          "points"
        ],
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          "switch",
          "switch"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(rail transport, chiefly British) A man in charge of railroad points (switches)."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "switchman"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "rail-transport",
        "railways",
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      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "roman": "streločnik",
          "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "стрелочник"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
          "word": "wisselwachter"
        },
        {
          "code": "izh",
          "lang": "Ingrian",
          "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
          "word": "strelocnikka"
        },
        {
          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "svŕtničar",
          "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "свр́тничар"
        },
        {
          "code": "rsk",
          "lang": "Pannonian Rusyn",
          "roman": "koljajoprevodnjik",
          "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
          "tags": [
            "masculine",
            "person"
          ],
          "word": "коляйопреводнїк"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "zwrotniczy"
        },
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          "code": "pa",
          "lang": "Punjabi",
          "roman": "kāṇṭevālā",
          "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "ਕਾਂਟੇਵਾਲਾ"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pointsman"
}
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From points + man.",
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
        "Terms with Dutch translations",
        "Terms with Ingrian translations",
        "Terms with Macedonian translations",
        "Terms with Pannonian Rusyn translations",
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        "Terms with Punjabi translations",
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            ]
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          "text": "The signalman, as such, was unknown at first. At junctions, or for shunting, the pointsman was responsible both for setting the points and working the appropriate signals, the two being independent. As a result, accidents were comparatively frequent, and the pointsman's job was, at best, a hazardous one.",
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              134,
              143
            ]
          ],
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          "text": "At their point of origin, constructing these boxes presented railway companies with an attractive proposition: to remove the need for pointsmen and flagmen operating at several ground-level locations around a railway site by housing one or two men in a signal structure.",
          "type": "quote"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A man in charge of railroad points (switches)."
      ],
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        [
          "rail transport",
          "rail transport"
        ],
        [
          "man",
          "man"
        ],
        [
          "railroad",
          "railroad"
        ],
        [
          "points",
          "points"
        ],
        [
          "switch",
          "switch"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(rail transport, chiefly British) A man in charge of railroad points (switches)."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "switchman"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "rail-transport",
        "railways",
        "transport"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "roman": "streločnik",
      "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "стрелочник"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
      "word": "wisselwachter"
    },
    {
      "code": "izh",
      "lang": "Ingrian",
      "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
      "word": "strelocnikka"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "svŕtničar",
      "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "свр́тничар"
    },
    {
      "code": "rsk",
      "lang": "Pannonian Rusyn",
      "roman": "koljajoprevodnjik",
      "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
      "tags": [
        "masculine",
        "person"
      ],
      "word": "коляйопреводнїк"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "zwrotniczy"
    },
    {
      "code": "pa",
      "lang": "Punjabi",
      "roman": "kāṇṭevālā",
      "sense": "a man in charge of railroad points or switches",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "ਕਾਂਟੇਵਾਲਾ"
    }
  ],
  "word": "pointsman"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-07-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-07-01 using wiktextract (074e7de and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.