bluejacket

English

Etymology

blue +‎ jacket

Noun

bluejacket (plural bluejackets)

  1. (nautical) A seaman of a British warship
    • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 13,
      It never entered his mind that here was a matter which from its extreme questionableness, it was his duty as a loyal blue-jacket to report in the proper quarter.
    • 1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, Chapter 4,
      ‘ […] I’m not sure’, she continued, ‘that I won’t throw myself overboard, for the mere pleasure of being rescued by a blue-jacket […] ’
    • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, “Regatta,”
      The Navy and the Indian tribes up and down the Coast took part in the races, the Navy rowing their heavy ship's boats round from Esquimalt Harbour, manned by blue-jackets, while smart little pinnaces “pip-pipped” along commanded by young midshipmen.
  2. (nautical) An enlisted man in the US Navy.

Synonyms
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