Meanings
musher1
plural mushers
- One who drives a dogsled over ice and snow; specifically, one who participates in a dogsled race.
A sled dog learns that by the time she's hungry, her musher has already prepared a meal; by the time she's tired, she has a warm bed.
2020 September 23, Blair Braverman, “What my sled dogs taught me about planning for the unknown”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Jan 20232 more examples
It was a record run. Each day for fourteen days they had averaged forty miles. For three days Perrault and François threw chests up and down the main street of Skaguay and were deluged with invitations to drink, while the team was the constant centre of a worshipful crowd of dog-busters and mushers.
1903 July, Jack London, “Who Has Won to Mastership”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, pages 109–110The youngest musher to enter was Dallas Seavey, who ran in the 2005 Junior Iditarod at age 17, then turned 18 one day before the Iditarod and ran that race in the same year. […] Dallas Seavey was also the youngest musher to win, taking the 2012 championship at age 25.
2014, Tricia Brown, “Champions and Record Breakers”, in Iditarod, Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 109Synonyms: dog musher
musher2
plural mushers
- LondonslangSynonym of mush (“a cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well”).
Nobody knew Old Joe. He was a "musher"—that is to say, he owned his own cab and mostly did night work. He gave no trouble to anybody, and came and went as a rule in the dark hours of the night.
The Forger
1927, Edgar Wallace, chapter XXXIV, in The Clever One [The Forger], 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: The Crime Club, Doubleday, Doran & Company, published 1928, →OCLC, page 287Synonyms: mush
musher3
Synonyms & antonyms
nounOne who drives a dogsled over ice and snow; specifically, one who participates in a dogsled race.
nounSynonym of mush (“a cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well”).
Origin
musher · noun
- Proto-Indo-European*merǵ-“(noun) border, boundary, edge; (verb) to divide”
- Proto-Germanic*markōną“to mark; to notice”
- Frenchmarche
- Englishmusher
From mush (“to drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across snow”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Mush is probably derived from French marche or marchons, respectively the second-person singular and first-person plural imperative forms of marcher (“to move; to travel; to walk”), from Proto-Germanic *markōną (“to mark; to notice”), from *marką (“mark; sign; stamp”), possibly related to *markō (“border, boundary; area, region”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *merǵ- (“(noun) border, boundary, edge; (verb) to divide”).
More words from French, Proto-Germanic, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →musher · noun
Origin uncertain, possibly from mush (“cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns), although the word is attested slightly earlier than mush. Mush is possibly derived from mush (“to drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across snow”, verb) (see etymology 1), or mush (“(slang, rare) umbrella”, noun) (a clipping of mushroom, from the similar appearance; referring to drivers shielding passengers with umbrellas in rainy weather).
Full word history & related roots →musher · noun
Clipping of musher(oom) or musher(oon), variants of mushroom.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish koiravaljakon ohjastaja, lumessa kulkija
- koiravaljakon ohjastajaone who drives a dogsled over ice and snow; specifically, one who participates in a dogsled race
- lumessa kulkijaone who travels over snow
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with musher
All rhymes →Cite this entry
musher. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/musher
“musher.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/musher. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “musher,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/musher.
Source: musher on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.