emigrant, n. and a.
(ˈɛmɪgrənt)
[ad. L. ēmigrānt-em, pr. pple. of ēmigrā-re: see emigrate.]
A. n. a. One who removes from his own land to settle (permanently) in another. Freq. attrib. in sense ‘of, pertaining to, or used by emigrants’, as emigrant car, emigrant road, emigrant ship, emigrant trail.
| 1754 (title), A Memorial of the Case of the German Emigrants settled in..Pensilvania. 1774 Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry I. Introd. 27 In these expeditions the northern emigrants were..attended by their poets. 1818 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 302, I greatly doubt of its being..of any benefit to the emigrants themselves. 1839 Thirlwall Greece II. xii. 82 The emigrants were headed by chiefs who claimed descent from Agamemnon. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wks. (Bohn) II. 100 The noise of embarking emigrants. |
| attrib. 1842 Amer. Almanac (Boston) 321 The emigrant ship called the Governor Fenner..comes in collision with the Nottingham Steamer. 1843 Merchant's Mag. XVIII. 540, 20 eight-wheeled emigrant,..and 4 eight-wheeled mail and baggage cars. 1845 J. C. Frémont Exped. 107 The usual emigrant road to the mountains. Ibid. 179, I had determined to leave the emigrant trail. 1850 Dickens Dav. Copp. lv. 556 The time drawing on rapidly for the sailing of the emigrant-ship, my good old nurse..came up to London. 1855 Times 9 July 10/5 Wreck of the Emigrant ship Lochmaben Castle. 1858 Penn. Rail Road Annual Rep. 14 The rolling stock..consisted..of 31 Emigrant Cars. 1883 E. W. Nye Baled Hay 56 The tourists..got them onto the emigrant train. 1895 Rat Portage [Kenora] News (Ont.) 5 Apr. 2/2 A special train of six emigrant cars passed through here about five o'clock this morning from the east. 1942 M. Sandoz Crazy Horse 13 Many..left their bones for the wolves along the emigrant road. |
b. spec. One of the French Royalists who fled at the time of the Revolution;
= emigré 1.
| 1792 Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) I. 368 The deplorable state of the French emigrants. 1812 T. Amyot Windham's Life I. 39 An expedition, composed of Emigrants, proceeded against Quiberon. 1860 L. V. Harcourt Diaries G. Rose I. 162 The Emperor had insisted that the Emigrants should make no attempt to disturb the public tranquillity. |
B. adj. That emigrates or leaves his own land for another. Also (of birds), migratory.
| 1794 Mathias Purs. Lit. (1798) 195 Emigrant Catholick priests. 1796 E. Darwin Zoon. I. 233 The same birds are emigrant from some countries and not so from others. |