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green hand
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
1 — Fur Trade, Hist.
See greenhorn (def. 1) 1920 quote.
See: greenhorn(def. 1)
Quotations
1859
Met a party from Carleton bringing the mail, and likewise the "green hands"--as the newly engaged men are called.
1913
I especially resented the rule prohibiting any "green hand" to get into a canoe. . . .
2
in lumbering, fishing, etc., an inexperienced man.
Quotations
1835
. . . I need not tell you that green hands must always pass a season or two with experienced fishermen. . . .
1883
It is time for the "green hands" to exercise themselves on the loose timber and logs.
1927
Life in such craft was so monotonous, so jail-like, and the cruises so lengthy that naught but graduate whalemen and "green" hands were carried.
1961
This was also the time when the "green hands"--the young men who had been hired for the drive for the first time--would practise on the loose timber and logs. . . .