Definition of "linesman" []

• Football An official who marks the downs and the position of the ball and watches for certain violations from the sidelines. (noun)
• Sports An official in various court games whose chief duty is to call shots that fall out of bounds. (noun)
• Sports An official in soccer and other field games who indicates when the ball has gone out of bounds. (noun)
• Sports Either of two officials in ice hockey who call icing and offsides, conduct face-offs, and call penalities. (noun)
• See lineman. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Finally, if defending players are slow getting to an on-side position for the ensuing faceoff, the linesman is unable to drop the puck (they have five seconds to do so once they blow their whistle, provided everyone is set and ready to go)."
• "She called a linesman everything except a "hermaphrodite" in a U.S."
• "I was a similar distance to the ref, and the linesman was a bit away as well."