chinaman

plural chinamen

1. obsoleteA dealer in porcelain (china).

plural chinamen

1. datedball gamesA left-arm unorthodox bowling action (left-arm wrist-spin).

   Several cricketers came up to them and asked Pradeep about his effortless action mimicry and his promising chinaman bowling.

   2011, Shehan Karunatilaka, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, Jonathan Cape, page 103

2. ball gamesA spin bowler who uses such an action.
3. ball gamesA ball delivered with such an action.

plural Chinamen

1. datedoffensiveA Chinese person, or person of Chinese descent.

   "It is my fly-trap!" shrieked the Chinaman. "And I am the god of destruction!"

   1913, Sax Rohmer, chapter 25, in The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu

   5 more examples

   A disorderly Chinaman is rare, and a lazy one does not exist. So long as a Chinaman has strength to use his hands he needs no support from anybody; white men often complain of want of work, but a Chinaman offers no such complaint; he always manages to find something to do.[…]Any white man can swear a Chinaman’s life away in the courts, but no Chinaman can testify against a white man.

   1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “”, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 391

   Another favorite pastime of the Highbinder who is usually a loafer, is to levy blackmail on a wealthy Chinaman.[…]If it were not that the Chinamen kill only men of their own race and let alone all other men, the citizens of San Francisco would have sacked and burned Chinatown.

   1906, Hubert D. Russell, editor, Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror, 1906, published 2003, page 251

   On the flat behind the mill, dawn-rising Chinamen shogged with nimble bare feet under their yoke-linked watering-cans. These busy brethren, meeting sometimes on the same narrow track, would pause, ant-like, seemingly to dumbly regard one another and their burdens, then, still ant-like, pass silently to their work.

   1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 147

   The carts rattle by, swinging from side to side; two Chinamen lollop along under their wooden yokes with the straining vegetable baskets—their pigtails and blue blouses fly out in the wind.

   1920 August 27, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Wind Blows”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 137

   What future is there being a Chinaman? You're born, eat your way through a handful of rice, and you die. What a country! Let's have a drink.

   1932, Jules Furthman, Shanghai Express, spoken by Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette)

   Synonyms: Chinaperson

2. A sailing ship of the 18th and 19th centuries engaged in the Old China Trade.
3. USobsoleteoffensiveslangAddiction from a narcotic, especially heroin.First known use 20th c.

   Chinaman half in and half out of the door. Codeine and goof balls, and complete discouragement.

   1952 November 5, William S. Burroughs, “To Allen Ginsberg”, in Oliver Harris, editor, The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959, New York: Penguin, published 1993, →ISBN, page 140