collier en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- kälʹē-ər (US)
- /ˈkɒlɪə(ɹ)/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (UK) audio
- /ˈkɑliɚ/ (US)
- /ˈkɔlɪjə(ɹ)/ (British, Southern, Standard)
Etymology
From Middle English colier, colyer, alteration of earlier coler, collere (“one who makes or sells charcoal”), from Old English *colere (“collier”), equivalent to coal + -ier.
Meanings
-
(dated, historical) A person in the business or occupation of producing or distributing coal (any of several types of carbon fuel). ▸ A person who produces (e.g., digs, mines, gathers) or sells coal (the fossil fuel type), or transports it from underground, from the soil, or from a seashore.
No caps were touched, no curtseys bobbed. The colliers merely stared; the tradesmen lifted their caps to Connie as to an acquaintance, and nodded awkwardly to Clifford; that was all. [...] It was not that she and Clifford were unpopular, they merely belonged to another species altogether from the colliers. Gulf impassable, breach indescribable, such as is perhaps non-existent south of the Trent.
1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC:The Black Dwarfs wear black jackets and caps, are not handsome like the others, but on the contrary are horridly ugly, with weeping eyes, like blacksmiths and colliers.
1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 283:Near-synonyms: coalminer, coalworker; coalowner, mineowner
-
(dated, historical) A person in the business or occupation of producing or distributing coal (any of several types of carbon fuel). ▸ A person in the business or occupation of producing (and selling) charcoal.
For this reason, the collier took constant care to keep the covering of earth in good order.
1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 224:
-
A vessel carrying a bulk cargo of coal.
By 1830, more than two million tons of coal a year, principally from the North East, arrived in London by coastal collier, and that figure reached three million tons by the 1840s.
2021 December 1, Nigel Harris, “St Pancras and King's Cross: 1947”, in RAIL, number 945, page 42:
- A sailor on such a vessel.
- (slang, used by the traveller community) A non-traveller.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| colliers | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Deriveds
Relateds
Collier Street · collie · mineral coal · colliery · Colliers Wood · seacoal
Synonyms
coaler · mineowner · charcoal burner · coalworker · coalminer · coalowner
Translations (17)
pl węglowiec (vessel) · cmn 煤船員 /煤船员 (crew member on a coalship) · nl kolenschip (vessel) · ga bád guail (vessel) · fi hiilialus (vessel) · ga pota guail (vessel) · fr charbonnier (vessel) · nl koolschip (vessel) · fi hiililaiva (vessel) · el καρβουνιάρικο (vessel) · ru у́гольщик (vessel) · el ανθρακοφόρο (vessel) · de Kohlenschiff (vessel) · ga soitheach guail (vessel) · pl węglarz (crew member on a coalship) · it carboniera (vessel) · bg въглевоз (vessel)