Navvy vs Nevvy - What's the difference?
navvy | nevvy |
(British) a laborer on a civil engineering project such as a canal or railroad
*1909 , B. Lindsay, Stories of the Universe: Animal Life
*:Suppose two lads, fresh from school, go out into the world to earn their living; one becomes a navvy' and one a clerk. In five years' time these two young men will probably be very different in appearance from one another. The ' navvy will have developed his muscles; he will be broad-built, broad-chested, and strong.
*1913 , George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion
*:His proper trade's a navvy ; and he works at it sometimes too—for exercise—and earns good money at it.
(British) To carry out physical labor on a civil engineering project.
* 1974 , Malcolm MacDonald, World From Rough Stones , 2013,
* 1978 , , The Autobiography of John Shaw Neilson ,
* 1995 , , Ian Duncan MacKillop, Richard Storer (editors), F.R. Leavis: Essays and Documents , 2005,
As nouns the difference between navvy and nevvy
is that navvy is (british) a laborer on a civil engineering project such as a canal or railroad while nevvy is a nephew.As a verb navvy
is (british|intransitive) to carry out physical labor on a civil engineering project.navvy
English
Noun
(navvies)Verb
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- But by pretending to believe he's navvied before, I've given him double reason to drive himself hard.
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- Before my time of navvying I believe the times were still worse.
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- Three terms to use for George Eliot: the feminine imagination and sensibility; Intellect, the capacity for higher navvying ; Intelligence.