Search the Dictionary

One who follows the business of navigating ships or other vessels; one who understands the practical management of ships; one of the crew of a vessel; a mariner; a common seaman.

front of; farther forward than; as, afore the windlass. Afore the mast, among the common sailors; -- a phrase used to distinguish the ship's crew from the officers.

A genus of Cephalopoda. The shell is called paper nautilus or paper sailor.

The Indian fig. See Banyan. Banian days (Naut.), days in which the sailors have no flesh meat served out to them. This use seems to be borrowed from the Banians or Banya race, who eat no flesh.

e world was all before them where to choose. Milton. Before the mast (Naut.), as a common sailor, -- because the sailors live in the forecastle, forward of the foremast. -- Before the wind (Naut.), in the direction of the wind and by its impulse; having the wind aft.

Bad port wine; any commo wine of the Mediterranean; -- so called by sailors.

ack, Blue stone, blue vitriol; sulphate of copper. -- Blue jacket, a man-of war's man; a sailor wearing a naval uniform. -- Blue jaundice. See under Jaundice. -- Blue laws, a name first used in the eighteenth century to describe certain supposititious laws of extreme rigor reported to have been enacted in New Haven;…

One dressed in blue, as a soldier, a sailor, a beadle, etc.

of a ship to prevent an enemy from boarding it. -- Boarding pike (Naut.), a pike used by sailors in boarding a vessel, or in repelling an attempt to board it. Totten. -- Boarding school, a school in which pupils receive board and lodging as well as instruction.

A small round cloud, with a ruddy center, supposed by sailors to portend a storm.

let it all run out and go overboard, as when there is not time to weigh anchor. Hence, in sailor's use, to die.

evers occuring in tropics; esp. to a form of furious delirium accompanied by fever, among sailors, which sometimes led the affected person to imagine the sea to be a green field, and to throw himself into it.

hich it describes. (b) To give an order for; to request. "Whenever the coach stopped, the sailor called for more ale." Marryat. -- To call on, To call upon, (a) To make a short visit to; as, call on a friend. (b) To appeal to; to invite; to request earnestly; as, to call upon a person to make a speech. (c) To solicit…

A sailor's song.

ers; as, to cheer hounds in a chase. To cheer ship, to salute a passing ship by cheers of sailors stationed in the rigging.

olors do stir up and beget a sensation of white. Sir I. Newton. To commix With winds that sailors rail at. Shak.

One taken by lot, or compulsorily enrolled, to serve as a soldier or sailor.

Of or pertaining to an amateur sailor or yachtsman; as, a corinthian race (one in which the contesting yachts must be manned by amateurs.)

nly having a serpentine blade. [Written also crease and kris.] From a Malayan creese to a sailor's jackknife. Julian Hawthorne.

use, into which men are decoyed and plied with drink, to induce them to ship or enlist as sailors or soldiers. -- Crimping iron. (a) An iron instrument for crimping and curling the hair. (b) A crimping machine. -- Crimping machine, a machine with fluted rollers or with dies, for crimping ruffles leather, iron, etc.…