navvy

noun

1. (UK, historical)A laborer on a civil engineering project such as a canal or railroad.

   “Suppose two lads, fresh from school, go out into the world to earn their living; one becomes a navvy and one a clerk. In five years' time these two young men will probably be very different in appearance from one another. The navvy will have developed his muscles; he will be broad-built, broad-chested, and strong.”

   “His proper trade's a navvy; and he works at it sometimes too—for exercise—and earns good money at it.”

   “The navvies of the Midland Railway toiled for years to build it, enduring grim conditions in shanty towns that were built miles from civilisation. But build it they did, to form part of the Midland's main line between London St Pancras and Carlisle via Sheffield and Leeds from 1876.”

2. an unskilled laborer

verb

1. (UK, historical, intransitive)To carry out physical labor on a civil engineering project.

   “But by pretending to believe he's navvied before, I've given him double reason to drive himself hard.”

   “Before my time of navvying I believe the times were still worse.”

   “Three terms to use for George Eliot: the feminine imagination and sensibility; Intellect, the capacity for higher navvying; Intelligence.”