crossing-sweeper

English

Noun

crossing-sweeper (plural crossing-sweepers)

1. (now chiefly historical) Someone whose job is to sweep street crossings.
   • 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Nineteenth”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC:

     There was one giant — a black 'un — as left his carawan some year ago and took to carrying coach-bills about London, making himself as cheap as crossing-sweepers.

   • 2012, Simon Heffer, “In Fagin's Footsteps”, in Literary Review, section 403:

     But the streets were also a place of work: for the humble crossing-sweeper, for example, who tried to ensure, in return for a tip, that when persons of quality crossed the road they did so without having to pick their way through dust, mud and horse dung.