[f. WAREHOUSE sb. + MAN sb.]
1. A man employed in or having the charge of a warehouse.
1635. in Times Lit. Suppl. (1918), 5 Sept., 416/2. Hee was one that was at the imbayling thereof, for was his place beeing warehousman alwayes to doo that businesse.
1798. Bay’s Rep. (1809), I. 45. The custom is for a shop-keeper to send home goods in the care of a trusty servant or warehouse man.
1850. J. H. Newman, Serm. Var. Occ., xii. (1881), 233. He began … with the poor; then he went among shopmen, warehousemen, clerks in banks.
1872. Daily News, 15 July. A cricket match at the Kennington Oval in which all the players are warehousemen.
1885. Law Times Rep., LII. 648/1. Plowright was … employed as a warehouseman by a firm of general merchants in Manchester.
b. (See quot. and WAREHOUSE sb. 1 f.)
1875. Southward, Dict. Typogr., Warehouseman, the person who has charge of the warehouse.
2. A wholesale merchant (esp. a trader in textile materials) who has a warehouse for the storing of merchandise.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1208/4. Robert Harper Apprentice to John Briant at the Golden Cross in Cateaton-street, London, Warehouse-man,… Ran away from his said Master on the 15 day of June. Ibid. (1708), No. 4427/16. Whereas a Commission of Bankrupt is awarded against Thomas Carey, late of London, Warehouse-man.
1745. De Foe’s Eng. Tradesm., xxxii. (1841), II. 1. The wholesale tradesman is frequently called a warehouse-man, or factor.
1887. Brit. Textile Warehouseman, 15 Sept., 463. Mr. Campbell is not merely a warehouseman but a manufacturer of the goods displayed.
1903. Times, 12 March, 11/3. Berlin Textiles…. Warehousemen report a pause in the demand.
b. Italian warehouseman: see ITALIAN a.
