What does "sandman" mean?

1. (mythical figure) a magical character who brings sleep and dreams by putting sand in your eyes. 2. (seller of sand) a person who used to sell sand for cleaning floors or for use in building.

sandman — meaning, definition & examples

Word

01mythical figure

B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun

n. a magical character who brings sleep and dreams by putting sand in your eyes.

n. a folkloric character who induces sleep and dreams by sprinkling magical sand into the eyes of sleepers.

“The children were told that the sandman would visit them soon if they closed their eyes.”

“In many European traditions, the sandman is a benevolent figure, though some literary interpretations portray him as a more unsettling presence.”

02seller of sand

C2 · Proficiency Countable noun Archaic

n. a person who used to sell sand for cleaning floors or for use in building.

n. a person who sold sand, particularly for domestic use such as scouring floors or for industrial purposes.

“In the old days, the sandman would walk through the streets with his cart.”

“The occupation of the sandman became obsolete as modern cleaning products and construction supply chains replaced local street vendors.”

Synonyms

sand-seller

From sand + -man. The mythological sense may be from German Sandmann, Sandmännchen, as it is apparently first attested in English in the context of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella The Sandman (1816). The German is attested in the relevant sense since at least the mid-18th century.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NOUN

sandman(C2)

ADJECTIVE