noun
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a person who owns or operates oil wells
-
a person who makes or sells oil
Gender
See -man.
Etymology
Origin of oilman
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“No one was paying any attention to Venezuelan oil two weeks ago,” a longtime oilman said to me the other day, “but now everyone is.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 10, 2026
The smartest oilman I know once told me that the low-cost producer always wins.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 11, 2025
Buckley was the fourth of 10 children of a millionaire oilman and older brother of conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr., who died in February 2008.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 18, 2023
This oilman here was not a nabob like Doheny, but his L.A. oil scandal was going on at the same time.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 3, 2023
“After all,” one oilman reasoned, “we’re just another Middle East war away from another boom.”
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
