A man of the working classes; a man employed to work for a wage, esp. in a manual or industrial occupation: a term inclusive of ‘artisan,’ ‘mechanic,’ and ‘laborer.’
1816. T. Williams, Means Improv. Condit. Poor, 23. How much more pleasant is the occupation of a working-man than of a beggar, or a vagrant!
1830. B’ham Petit. Rights, § 6, in Life T. Attwood (1885), 154. That … all the taxes ought to be taken off from those articles necessary for the subsistence and comfort of working men.
1873. Iron, 5 July, 5/1. The … prevalence of what are called ‘working-men’s candidates.’
1896. Westm. Gaz., 4 March, 8/2. The word ‘workingman’ was here held to include a clerk or small shopkeeper, or anyone whose total income did not exceed £150 a year.
1901. W. R. H. Trowbridge, Lett. her Mother to Eliz., x. 43. Mr. Wertzelmann … held out a hand like a working-man’s.
So Working-woman.
1841. Chester Chron., 7 May, 4/6. The seeming boy turned out to be a young girl—pretty, of course—the daughter of a working-woman named Taylor, who lives near Grosvenor-square.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xv. A child, playing at washing, and imitating a poor working-woman.
1918. Current History, Feb., 200. Workingmen and workingwomen have raised the cry for bread, peace, and liberty in the street.
