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ck, the position of the cock of a gun when retained by the first notch. -- Half hitch, a sailor's knot in a rope; half of a clove hitch. -- Half hose, short stockings; socks. -- Half measure, an imperfect or weak line of action. -- Half note (Mus.), a minim, one half of a semibreve. -- Half pay, half of the wages…

A name given by soldiers and sailors to a kind of hard biscuit or sea bread.

Comrade; boon companion; good fellow; -- a term of familiar address and fellowship among sailors. Dickens.

his chair nearer. To hitch up. (a) To fasten up. (b) To pull or raise with a jerk; as, a sailor hitches up his trousers. (c) To attach, as a horse, to a vehicle; as, hitch up the gray mare. [Colloq.]

The pigfish or sailor's choice.

A sailor's contemptuous term for any antiquated craft.

A dance performed, usually by one person, to such a tune, and popular among sailors.

he peculiar shape of its pods. -- Iron horse, a locomotive. [Colloq.] -- Salt horse, the sailor's name for salt beef. -- To look a gift horse in the mouth, to examine the mouth of a horse which has been received as a gift, in order to ascertain his age; -- hence, to accept favors in a critical and thankless spirit. L…

A hussy. [R.] [Usually written huswife.] Shak. Sailor's housewife, a ditty-bag.

To take by force for public service; as, to impress sailors or money. The second five thousand pounds impressed for the service of the sick and wounded prisoners. Evelyn.

ressing into public service; compulsion to serve; as, the impressment of provisions or of sailors. The great scandal of our naval service -- impressment -- died a protracted death. J. H. Burton.

A popular colloquial name for a sailor; -- called also Jack tar, and Jack afloat.

A small wooden mess tub; -- a name given by sailors to one in which they receive their food. Cooper.

tary force serving on land, as distinguished from a naval force. -- Land, ho! (Naut.), a sailor's cry in announcing sight of land. -- Land ice, a field of ice adhering to the coast, in distinction from a floe. -- Land leech (Zoöl.), any one of several species of blood-sucking leeches, which, in moist, tropical regio…

A sailor on his first voyage.

A native sailor, employed in European vessels; also, a menial employed about arsenals, camps, camps, etc.; a camp follower. [East Indies]

wn. Lingering lubbers lose many a penny. Tusser. Land lubber, a name given in contempt by sailors to a person who lives on land. -- Lubber grasshopper (Zoöl.), a large, stout, clumsy grasshopper; esp., Brachystola magna, from the Rocky Mountain plains, and Romalea microptera, which is injurious to orange trees in Flor…

ndering albatross. -- Man-of-war hawk (Zoöl.), the frigate bird. -- Man-of-war's man, a sailor serving in a ship of war. -- Portuguese man-of-war (Zoöl.), any species of the genus Physalia. See Physalia.

ject. Tell that to the marines, an expression of disbelief, the marines being regarded by sailors as credulous. [Colloq.]

One whose occupation is to assist in navigating ships; a seaman or sailor. Chaucer. Mariner's compass. See under Compass.