as in longshoreman
one who loads and unloads ships at a port a trade embargo that was especially hard on the nation's dockhands

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of dockhand Two of the eight tainted Tylenol bottles came from Jewel stores in the northwest suburbs, though neither had passed through the Melrose Park warehouse where Arnold had long worked for Jewel as a dockhand. Chicago Tribune, 29 Sep. 2022 Alhonna is the genesis of the crime drama, where screenwriter Bill Dubuque worked as a dockhand in his youth at the comfortable, somewhat dated, lake retreat. Mike and Wendy Pramik, cleveland, 7 July 2022 Just stepping onto the log from the dock, then maintaining balance as the log was pushed out into the water by dockhands with poles, looked like a challenge. David G. Molyneaux, miamiherald, 19 Aug. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dockhand
Noun
  • Heroic lead character and longshoreman Terry Malloy stands up to rackets boss Johnny Friendly, gets beaten bloody, and in the final reel leads his fellow longshoremen back into the brutal purgatory of the big city docks.
    Jeffrey Steele, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2025
  • Dockworkers and longshoremen struck a tentative deal Wednesday night to avoid a damaging strike ahead of a looming January deadline.
    Sophia Vento, The Hill, 9 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • His father was a stevedore and his mother an autodidact who aspired to something better than the prefab house where her family lived.
    Molly Fischer, New Yorker, 5 May 2025
  • Docks depended on a circulating pool of male maritime workers—crews of seamen and stokers who manned the tramp steamers, gangs of longshoremen, and stevedores who loaded and unloaded goods, as well as artisans and machinists who maintained and repaired the ships and trains.
    Michael Denning, Foreign Affairs, 21 Aug. 2015
Noun
  • As cargo entering major U.S. West Coast ports starts to slow down amid a deceleration in Chinese imports, the union representing dockworkers across the ocean freight hubs has made its opinion clear on where is stands on President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
    Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 29 Apr. 2025
  • That is comparable to the pay for dockworkers on the West Coast, represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, whose wages will rise to nearly $61 in 2027.
    Peter Eavis, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Dockhand.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dockhand. Accessed 23 May. 2025.

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