DCHP-1 Online
pioneer 
1 † n. a settler who helps to open up a part of a country.
- 1833 (1926) . . . such is the uncertainty in which we poor pioneers are left.
- 1965 Pioneers . . . conceived the idea of a plank road between the two villages. . . .
2 n. a railway track-laying machine that works at the head of steel (def. 1).
See also: steel (def. 1)
- 1913 After two or three lengths of rail have been laid in this way, the pioneer gives two short hoots, the two locomotives behind give a few puffs, and the pioneer and the whole train advance some twenty or thirty feet; the pioneer then gives one hoot as a signal for the train to stop.
- 1833 (1926) . . . such is the uncertainty in which we poor pioneers are left.