section hand


nounRailroads.
  1. a person who works on a section gang.

Origin of section hand

1
First recorded in 1870–75

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use section hand in a sentence

  • A new volume in the “Railroad Series,” in which the young section-hand is promoted to a train despatcher.

    The Rival Campers | Ruel Perley Smith
  • The whole thing wasn't any bigger an asset than a job as a section hand on the U P.

    David Lannarck, Midget | George S. Harney
  • This man isn't a section hand: he's wearing a uniform; he has a cap; it looks as if he had some right to tell us to stop.

  • But she has never before been seen in America employed, for instance, as a section hand on a railway.

    Mobilizing Woman-Power | Harriot Stanton Blatch
  • Maybe some section hand stuck a feather of that eagle in his hat and called it macaroni!