1578 R. Day Bk. Christian Prayers f. 90^v (caption) The Printers. Leaue setting thy page, spent is thine age. Pressmen goe play: printing must stay.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Battitore..Also a Printers presse-man.

1683 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises II. 281 When the Press-man Pulls, the Tennants of the Head shall have an equal Horizontal level Check.

1763 W. Lewis Commercium Philosophico-technicum 374 The care and attention of the pressmen in well working the ink on the types with the balls, are very material points.

1794 P. Freneau Country Printer in Village Merchant 13 Who, year from year,..Is author, pressman, devil—and what not?

1809 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1959) III. 177 The procuring a good steady young Man..who would be at once..Compositor and Pressman.

1867 W. T. Brande & G. W. Cox Dict. Sci., Lit. & Art (new ed.) III. 74/1 Pressmen, who apply ink to the surface of the form of types, and take off the impressions upon paper. The pressmen who work steam presses are called machine minders.

1894 Labour Commission Gloss. s.v Pressmen, mechanics engaged in printing by the old hand presses (very few now) taking off impressions on paper, whether from type, stone, wood~cuts, or metal plates.

1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Jan. 48/2 (advt.) Pressman, for hand-fed cylinder and Heidelberg platen.

1991 Hist. Workshop Spring 14 Compositors and pressmen refuse to associate with each other.

?1611 G. Chapman tr. Homer Iliads xviii. 516 One only path to all, by which the pressmen [Gk. ϕορῆες] came In time of vintage.

1818 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1959) IV. 846 I have no wish to see you a frequent Pressman—If you did not publish any work of any volume till you were 40, I should not be discontent.

1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 13 Sept. 4/2 Our Commissioner..was not the first press man presented to the Japanese Sovereign.

1898 Daily News 31 Aug. 6/3 (Institute of Journalists) Sir Edward Russell delivered his presidential address before a large audience of pressmen from various parts of the country.

1913 ‘S. Rohmer’ Myst. Dr. Fu-Manchu xviii. 189 Places unknown even to the ubiquitous copy-hunting pressman.

1959 New Statesman 20 June 853/1 The now mutual hostility between pressmen and the Prince has been developing for some time.

1991 Hindu (Madras) 6 Dec. 26/2 These facts were revealed to pressmen during a visit to apex cooperative institutions in Madras.

1892 Times 12 Aug. 12/5 The conference then discussed for several hours the question of what increase of wages should be paid to Northampton clickers and pressmen.

1895 Daily News 22 Mar. 7/3 The demand for an increase of wages to clickers and pressmen.

1907 Times 11 Oct. 16/5 After a long discussion, the manufacturers agreed to the minimum wage as existing in Bristol—namely, 28s. per week for clickers, rounders, and finishers, and 25s. for pressmen.

1949 Oxf. Econ. Papers New ser. 1 257 The issue of an advance in wages for clickers and pressmen seems to have been drawn in almost at the last minute, as a matter of internal Union politics.

1638 Earl of Manchester in Buccleuch MSS (Hist. MSS Comm.) (1899) I. 282 The soldiers that are to go must now be press men.

1665 S. Pepys Diary 10 May (1972) VI. 99 To get some soldiers..to go keep press-men on board our ships.

1978 Church Times 17 Feb. 11/4 In religious education there has been a constant battle waged to rise to..ensure that the subject is taught by qualified specialists rather than by willing amateurs or, worse, by reluctant press-men.

a1694 E. Coxere Adventures by Sea (1945) (modernized text) 27 It happened to be the same ship those pressmen did belong to.

1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Pressman, 1. One who forces another into service; one who forces away.

1992 S. Holloway Courage High! iii. 30/2 The certificate, a printed document with spaces left to fill in the individual names, made clear to the Pressmen that the holders of such certificates: ‘shall be free from being impressed’.