Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
bluejacket. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
bluejacket, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
bluejacket in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
bluejacket you have here. The definition of the word
bluejacket will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
bluejacket, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From blue + jacket.
Noun
bluejacket (plural bluejackets)
- (nautical) A seaman of a British warship
1924, Herman Melville, chapter 13, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.: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, 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:‘ […] 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, “Regatta”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC: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.
- (nautical) An enlisted man in the US Navy.
1939, Fred J. Buenzle, Arthur Grove Day, Bluejacket: An Autobiography, page 12:[…] drift like tear-starting smoke across these exciting pages written by a bluejacket of the U.S. Navy.
- A uniformed policeman.
1991, Stephen King, Needful Things: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.
Synonyms