gandy dancer
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See also: gandy-dancer
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Uncertain; see Wikipedia for various speculative etymologies.
Noun
gandy dancer (plural gandy dancers)
- (chiefly US, idiomatic) A railway laborer, especially a member of a crew which carries rails and affixes them to ties.
- 1929, Vernon W. Saul, “The Vocabulary of Bums”, in American Speech, volume 4, number 5, page 340:
- Gandy dancer—A section hand or track laborer.
- 1959 May 18, “Bush Teachers”, in Time, retrieved 14 September 2008:
- The oddest gandy-dancer on the railroads in Manitoba during the summer of 1926 was a 6-ft. 4-in. American medical student named Ben Spock.
- 1981 May 3, Edward C. Burks, “Amtrak Changes on Schedule”, in New York Times, retrieved 11 June 2014:
- In railroad slang, a gandy dancer is a track worker, one who lays or maintains track.