DCHP-2

colonist DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1 n.

  a railway coach having wooden seats and rough berths for sleeping, sometimes also having cooking facilities

  See also: colonist car  

  • 1911  "He sho' raised de debbil in de Colonist last night when he seed a sharper doin' up a fellah. . . ."

• 2 n. — Now rare

  one of the persons making up a colony.

  See also: colony  

  • 1879  The colonists bring with them farm implements, machinery, horses, cattle, and all the mechanical tools required for manufacturing industries.
  • 1909  . . . there is the tale of a hard fight for this mine between two Englishmen, one of whom championed the cause of an oppressed colonist

• 3 n.

  a farmer in a remote area recently opened for settlement.

  See also: settler (def. 3)  

  • The Cdn French colon in this sense is undoubtedly the source of this meaning.

  • 1963  These were the men they once called colonists but whom the almost-exclusively French-Canadian population of several villages now refer to as les fermiers (the farmers). Some came from the Lake St. John area of Quebec 30 years ago and some of the older men are sons of fathers who moved in soon after the railroad.