navvy

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The effect wasn’t androgynous so much as deeply disconcerting: Priest was, in writer Julie Burchill’s memorable assessment, “built like a hod-carrier” and looked “like a navvy who’d stolen all your makeup”.

From The Guardian • Jun. 5, 2020

They were known as the East London Group, and among their ranks were humble office clerks, a navvy, a window cleaner, a shop assistant, a printer, a basket-weaver and an errand boy.

From BBC • Sep. 23, 2017

He is also likened to a navvy, a sweep, a stiff Dutch doll, and an immense feather mattress.

From The Guardian • Aug. 24, 2012

Nevertheless, Author Mason can keep a story rolling like a navvy with a barrel, and that one perilous, amazing skill makes it hard to ignore what's happening.

From Time Magazine Archive

But what a dedly hinsult to one of the werry noblest of all noble perfessions, to compare for usefulness a mere railway navvy to a great Chef.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, November 5, 1887 by Various