wellsinker

English

Noun

wellsinker (plural wellsinkers)

1. Uncommon spelling of well sinker.
   • 1865, Richard Gee, ‘From Sunday to Sunday’ […], pages 137–8:

     It may be some particular set of workmen—brickmakers, wellsinkers, and others, who are the ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ in our locality, but who, unlike the Nethinim of old, cannot be said to have anything to do with the congregation of the Lord.

   • 1885 February 6, Lord Young, “Mrs Isabella Robertson and Others […] [v.] Archibald Russell […]”, in Middleton Rettie et al., editors, Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Court of Justiciary and House of Lords, from August 1, 1884, to July 18, 1885, published 1885, page 638:

     If I contract with a wellsinker to sink a well in my field I am under no duty to provide for the safety of his workmen.

   • 1888 January 1, James Smith, “Chumarni School, Delhi”, in The Missionary Herald of the Baptist Missionary Society, page 29:

     The name, however, is of wide import, and is applied to masons, bricklayers, plasterers, wellsinkers, field-labourers, roadmakers, and labourers of every kind.

   • 1971, William Henry Newnham, Old Adelaide Hotels Sketchbook‎^[1], →ISBN, page 12:

     With several other wellsinkers, he advertised in 1850 that he would sink wells at one dollar a foot, and guaranteed a supply of good water.

   • 1984, Eric C. Rolls, A Million Wild Acres, →ISBN, page 315:

     It was sunk in such an odd place one can only suppose the wellsinker was fooled by his divining rod.