ˈrockman
[rock n.1]
1. Sc. One who takes birds on rocks or cliffs.
| 1825 Jamieson Suppl., Rockman, a bird catcher, Orkn.; so named from the hazardous nature of his employment, being often suspended from the top of a perpendicular rock. |
2. In slate quarries, a skilled workman who gets out the slate rock.
| 1865 J. Bower Slate Quarries 20 The rockman..gets the blocks in the quarry, and splits them..ready to be carried out to the sawing machinery. 1884 Christian World 11 Sept. 678/5 As to rockmen and labourers, they are wanted by the hundred. 1892 Min. Evid. Labour Comm. Group A. II. 2 He [sc. a rubbisher] is the man who carries away all the material from the rock-men to the place where the slates are made. |