Also brakeman, breaksman. [In sense 1, f. BRAKE sb.4 + MAN; in sense 2, referred to BRAKE sb.7; for the form cf. craftsman, marksman, sportsman.]
1. In Coal-mining: see quot.
1851. Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh., 10. Brakesman, the engineman who attends to the winding machine.
1866. Jevons, Coal Quest. (ed. 2), 258. George Stephenson was brakesman to the fixed engine which hauled up the ballast upon the heap.
2. The man in charge of the brake-apparatus of a railway train; in U.S. (brakeman) the guard.
1861. Olmsted, Cotton Kingd., I. 161. A brakeman told me this delay was not very unusual.
1865. Morn. Star, 1 Feb. At the time of the accident he had been employed as a breaksman about three weeks.
1883. J. T. Trowbridge, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 212/2.
| With slackening speed and brakes screwed down, | |
| And the brakeman bawled out, ‘Tannery Town!’ |
