poleman
(ˈpəʊlmən)
[f. pole n.1 + man.]
A man who uses, carries, or fights with a pole.
| 1838 W. Herbert Attila 321 A good horseman, a good archer and poleman. 1859 F. A. Griffiths Artil. Man. (1862) 35 The pole-men lower the pole [of a tent]. 1889 Pall Mall G. 6 Feb. 3/2 Others [blocks of ice] are detached with ice chisels, and guided by the polemen to the bank. 1904 Daily News 11 Aug. 9 A poleman in the employ of a tramway company. |
b. At Eton: see quots.
| 1844 Disraeli Coningsby i. xi. (Montem at Eton), And all the Oppidans of the fifth form..class as ‘Corporals’; and are severally followed by one or more lower boys, who are denominated ‘Polemen’, but who appear in their ordinary dress. 1898 A. D. Coleridge Eton. Forties 332 The lower boys carried long white poles, from which they derived the name of polemen. |