Also spadesman. [SPADE sb.1] One who uses a spade; a laborer accustomed to work with a spade.
α. 1559. Ld. Cobham, in Boys, Sandwich (1792), 738. Over every x spade men muste be one clercke.
1647. Hexham, I. A spade-man or spader, een spader, spitter ofte delver.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 49. It is necessary also to employ spade-men … to clear out the small drains.
1854. W. R. Williams, Relig. Progr., iii. 59. The spademan who digs the canal.
1864. Realm, 17 Feb., 7. From his bowels the armed spademen keep issuing evermore.
β. 1826. Scott, Woodst., xxxiii. We are wretched spadesmen enough.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 224. The spadesman … is a useful servant on a farm.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 Dec., 3/2. In Sardinia they can obtain no spadesmen, the Sards having a distaste for performing the continuous work of navvies.
