Pl. foremen. Also for-. [f. FORE- pref. + MAN; cf. ON. formaðr, gen. -manns (perh. the source), also Du. voorman, Ger. vormann.]
† 1. One who goes in front; a leader. Obs.
c. 1425. Eng. Conq. Irel. lvii. 134. Steuenes-sone was forman, & opened the way to þe Erl.
1580. Baret, Alv., A foreman … a guide, auspex.
1592. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., 8. Simple men may write against other, or pleade for themselves; but they cannot confute cuttingly, like a hackster of Queen-High, or bellow lustely, like the foreman of the heard.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 8. If they be of the houshold of faith, they have right to harbour and relief; and in the practice of this duty, the Apostle requireth that the Minister bee the foreman.
1674. trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, 117. The Men are led up by a Laplander, whom they call Automwatze, or foreman, then follows the Bridegroom, after him the rest.
† b. pl. The front rank. Obs.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 387. Wherefore the Romans whenas in short space they had foiled the fore-men, they turned themselves back towards them which rushed upon them through wiles, and in like sort dispatched them every one.
1598. Grenewey, Tacitus’ Ann., I. ii. (1622), 21. The enemy stirred not whilest the Romane campe marched through the wood: then lightly skirmishing with the flankes and foremen; set amaine on the hindmost.
† c. The man in front (of another). Obs.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, III. i. 36. In march keeping the lower end of his pike on the one side of his foremans legge.
1607. Dekker & Webster, Sir T. Wyat, D’s Wks. 1873, III. 113.
| For no mans cheekes looke pale, but euerie face, | |
| Is lifted vp aboue his foremans head, | |
| And euerie Souldier does on tip-toe stand, | |
| shaking a drawne sword in his threatning hand. |
2. The principal juror, who presides at the deliberations of the jury, and communicates their verdict to the court.
1538. Fitzherb., Just. Peas, 89. The counterpane of the offyce … to remayne with the forman of the enquest.
1607. Dekker, Northw. Hoe, II. i. Wks. 1873, III. 10. I will looke grauely Doll, (doe you see boyes) like the fore-man of a Iury: and speake wisely like a Lattin Schoole-maister, and be furly and dogged, and proud like the Keeper of a prison.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 122, 20 July, ¶ 3. He is a very sensible Man; shoots flying; and has been several Times Foreman of the Petty-Jury.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxiv. The foreman, called in Scotland the chancellor of the jury, usually the man of best rank and estimation among the assizers, stepped forward.
1840. Hood, Kilmansegg, Her Death, xvi.
| Gold—still gold! it haunted her yet: | |
| At the Golden Lion the Inquest met— | |
| Its foreman a carver and gilder. |
transf. 1697. C. Leslie, Snake in Grass (ed. 2), 221. It is Subscrib’d by a Bakers Dozen of them; and George Fox the Fore-Man, in the Name of themselves, and of those in the same Unity.
3. One who takes the most prominent part; the chief or leader (of a party); the president (of a deliberative body). Obs. exc. locally in municipal use.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xii. 294. Socrates, the fore-man of his Dialogues doth ever aske and propose his disputation: yet never concluding, nor ever satisfying, and saith he hath no other science but that of opposing.
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., I. (ed. 2), 17. They presently with one voyce threatned to accurse and excommunicate by name the Kings principall wicked Counsellers; of whom Winchester being the foreman, appealed.
1702. S. Parker, trans. Cicero’s De Finibus, 280. The Old Peripatelics too, and among them Aristotle, their Foreman.
1790. Porson, Lett. Travis, 379. The Roman church had a written tradition, that Pope Leo, when he had finished his letter to Flavianus against Euyches and Nestorius, laid it on the tomb of the foreman of the Apostles, Peter, and besought him to correct it, wherever it was erroneous or imperfect.
1805. Southey, Lett. (1856), I. 307. At length all the inhabitants of the grave arose, St. John at their head for foreman, who told her that she disturbed the dead, and wetted them with her tears.
1835. Rep. Commiss. Municip. Corp., XXVI. 2287. The Foreman of the commons [of Huntingdon] is appointed by a committee of burgesses, which is itself appointed by the common council.
4. The principal workman; spec., one who has charge of a department of work. Foreman of the yard: one who superintends the gangers. Working foreman: one who divides his time between labor and supervision.
1574. Life Abp. Canterb., Pref. to Rdr., E v. Because you shall not thincke that you haue heare a horses neke ioyned to any other then horses bodye vnderstand you, that this seuentithe cam out off the verie same shoppe that other 69 did, perhaps it was but rough hewen by one of the prentises and wanted sum polishing by the forman.
1631. T. Powell, Tom of All Trades, 49. Thomas the fore-man of the Shop, when beard comes to him, as Apprentiship goes from him, be intangled and belymed with the like springs.
1641. H. Best, Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641 (Surtees), 46. Duringe the time of our loadinge of corne we have allwayes one abidinge on the mowe, which is usually the foreman, whose office is to mowe and place the sheaues aright, and allsoe to treade when the waines are absent.
1691. Dryden, K. Arthur, Epil. Wks. 1884, VIII. 200.
| Now, gallants, you must know, this precious fop | |
| Is foreman of a haberdasher’s shop. |
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 257. The Foundation being all made firm, and levelled, the Master-Bricklayer, or his Foreman, must take care to see all the Foundations set truly out.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 164. One of the masons … offered himself as foreman over the stone-cutters, and to overlook the works of the yard.
1863. P. Barry, Dockyard Econ., 79. Mr. Brown is the foreman of all the framework, and he will by ten o’clock next morning furnish perfectly reliable statements of the cost of setting up the frame.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 38. Foremen plan out the work, and allot it to the artisans.
1893. Labour Commission Gloss., Foremen of the Yards. A class of officers next above the leading men whose duty it is to supervise the building or repairs to ships and engines, and to whom the leading men are directly responsible.
b. ? An overseer or bailiff.
1774. J. Adams Fam. Lett. (1876), 7. I sometimes think I must come to this—to be the foreman upon my own farm and the schoolmaster to my own children.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xxix. 294. Petersen had been foreman of the settlement, and he calls my attention, with a sort of pride, to the tolling of the workmen’s bell.
1894–5. Kelly’s Oxford Direct., 342. J. Belcher, foreman to John Birt esq. Wood End farm.
† 5. ? slang. ? A goose. Obs.
1622. Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, V. iii. Ile soile you euer[y] long vacation a brace of foremen, that at Michaelmas shall come vp fat and kicking. [Differently in 1st ed.]
¶ 6. ? Used as ad. Du. voerman, carrier.
1641. Evelyn, Diary (1871), 25. From Dort, being desirous to hasten towards the Army, I tooke wagon to Roterdam, where we were hurried in lesse than an houre, though it be 10 miles distant, so furiously do these Foremen drive.
1699. R. L’Estrange, Colloq. Erasm. (ed. 3), 260. Po. We wait for the Antwerp-Wagon.… You must rise betimes to find a Fore-man [L. aurigam] Sober.
Hence Foreman v. trans. rare, to direct or oversee as a foreman. Foremanship, the office, post, or position of a foreman.
1859. Smiles, Self-Help, 17. So thorough is his [Rosse’s] knowledge of smith-work that he is said to have been pressed on one occasion to accept the foremanship of a large workshop, by a manufacturer to whom his rank was unknown.
1886. T. Wright, in 19th Cent., XX. 534. The all-round workman requires as a rule very little foremaning, and this enhances his value to employers.
