stoker

plural stokers

1. A person who stokes, especially one on a steamship or steam train, who stokes coal in the boilers.

   He held strongly to the black-ganger's philosophy - what is the use of all the radar and guns and torpedoes if you don't have the engineers and stokers to put them in the right position?

   1960, J.E. Macdonnell, Escort Ship, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, published 1972, page 22

   1 more example

   For this was a line so little frequented, especially at this hour, when the driver, the stoker, the guard and the station staffs all along the line, were anhelating towards their wives, after the long hours of continence, that the train would hardly draw up, when it would be off again, like a bouncing ball.

   1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

2. A device for stoking a fire; a poker.

   Synonyms: firestick, poker

3. A device that feeds coal into a furnace, etc., automatically.

   As we reported was to occur, two of Saltley's stoker-fitted 2-10-0s, Nos. 92165/7, have been stripped of their stokers at Crewe works.

   1962 April, “Motive power miscellany: London Midland Region”, in Modern Railways, page 278

4. A person who pedals on the back of a tandem bicycle.

plural Stokers

1. A surname.