ditchdigger

[ dich-dig-er ]

noun

1. a worker whose occupation is digging ditches, especially with pick and shovel.
2. a person engaged in exhausting manual work, especially work that requires little or no originality.
3. Also called ditcher, trencher. a power excavating machine designed to remove earth in a continuous line and to a predetermined width and depth, as by means of a rotating belt equipped with scoops.

Other Words From

• ditchdigging noun adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of ditchdigger¹

First recorded in 1895–1900; ditch + digger

Example Sentences

He was active in his high school drama club and majored in speech and drama at the University of Toledo, where he worked as a ditchdigger to pay for his education.

From Washington Post

In the film, Rogen plays Herschel Greenbaum, a struggling ditchdigger who flees his Eastern European shtetl in 1919 for a better life in America.

From New York Times

She used a ditchdigger’s scarf, a mechanic’s blouse, a waitress’ white collar and cuffs, popularized slacks, backless shoes, cotton dresses.”

From Time

The eighth son of a German immigrant, Singer had worked as a traveling actor, ditchdigger, cabinetmaker and peripatetic inventor.

From Time Magazine Archive

Neither planner nor architect nor lawyer nor legislator, just a self-described "senior ditchdigger," he was at once utterly pragmatic and utterly visionary.

From Time Magazine Archive