| Library / English Dictionary |
WORKING-CLASS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Of those who work for wages especially manual or industrial laborers
Example:
party of the propertyless proletariat
Synonyms:
blue-collar; propertyless; wage-earning; working-class
Classified under:
Similar:
low-class; lower-class (occupying the lowest socioeconomic position in a society)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Working for hourly wages rather than fixed (e.g. annual) salaries
Example:
working-class occupations include manual as well as industrial labor
Synonyms:
wage-earning; working-class
Classified under:
Similar:
blue-collar (of or designating manual industrial work or workers)
Context examples:
He was appalled at the problem confronting him, weighted down by the incubus of his working-class station.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
And he was aware that Ruth looked, too, with quick eyes that were timid and mild as a dove's, but which saw, in a look that was a flutter on and past, the working-class girl in her cheap finery and under the strange hat that all working-class girls were wearing just then.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
He had been to the working-class picnics too often in his earlier life not to know what they were like, and as he entered the park he experienced a recrudescence of all the old sensations.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
