hired hand

hired hand (plural hired hands)

1. A person who is employed to perform routine chores and manual labor, especially on a farm or ranch.
   • 1866, Bayard Taylor, chapter 1, in The Story of Kennett:

     [H]e was numbered among the missing after the Brandywine battle, and presently turned up as a hired hand on the Barton farm.

   • 1896, Stephen Crane, chapter 2, in The Third Violet:

     I rented th' back five-acre to John Westfall. I had more'n I could handle with only one hired hand.

   • 1990 July 20, Dirk Johnson, "A Farmer, 70, Saw No Choice; Nor Did the Sentencing Judge," New York Times (retrieved 29 Nov 2011):

     The Krikavas' farm was auctioned off in pieces. . . . Kevin Krikava, 29, now works as a hired hand on another farm.

• field hand

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