purser rigged and parish damned en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
From purser (“ship mate in charge of accounting for passengers aboard”) + rigged (“fixed”) + parish (“meaning church community ashore”) + damned (“forsaken”).
Meanings
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(obsolete, slang) Having joined the United States Navy, either because of destitution or in order to flee problems on land.
“Purser rigged and parish damned,” is the sailor saying in the American Navy, when the tyro first mounts the lined frock and blue jacket, aptly manufactured for him in a State Prison ashore.
1850, Herman Melville, White-Jacket, page 352: