Dictionary

bluejacket en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From blue + jacket.

Meanings

1. A seaman of a British warship
   • 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. 1942, Emily Carr, “Regatta”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:
   • 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. 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 13, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.:
   • ‘[…] I’m not sure’, she continued, ‘that I won’t throw myself overboard, for the mere pleasure of being rescued by a blue-jacket […]’ 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 4, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:
2. An enlisted man in the US Navy.
   • […] drift like tear-starting smoke across these exciting pages written by a bluejacket of the U.S. Navy. 1939, Fred J. Buenzle, Arthur Grove Day, Bluejacket: An Autobiography, page 12:
3. A uniformed policeman.
   • He told me that Buster took her face 'bout right off. Said there's guts and hair everyplace. There's a platoon or so of Payton's bluejackets up there on the View now. 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:
4. An Ohio spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis).

Forms

Synonyms

snot grass · cowslobber · snotweed · Confederate spiderwort · sailor · snotgrass