jack-tar
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of jack-tar
First recorded in 1775–85
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Not many days are required to restore Shiloh to his best blithe spirits and make of him an astonishingly tough and adept jack-tar.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Splendid jack-tar as he was, no one could be more thoroughly disagreeable than Isaac Dent when things, as he expressed it, "went agin' him."
From A Girl of the People by Meade, L. T.
I don’t say they don’t fight well, for I own they do their duty like men in that line; but when it comes to work, why, they ain’t in it with a jack-tar.
From By Conduct and Courage A Story of the Days of Nelson by Rainey, W. (William)
Somehow it has come to be supposed or assumed that a jack-tar cannot ride.
From Charlie to the Rescue by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)
So he got himself transferred to another boat that was about to sail for the West Indies, and took the rough service that falls to the lot of a jack-tar.
From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 13 Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers by Hubbard, Elbert
The Navy was at the centre of national life - politically powerful and a major cultural force as well, with images of the jolly sailor Jack Tar used to sell everything from cigarettes to postcards.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2014
The mysterious figure of Old Jack Tar, who acts as sage and mentor to Harry, is also based on a real person, this time the much-decorated British army officer Tommy Macpherson.
From Reuters ● May 12, 2011
They announced that Jack Tar will not have to take the 25% wage cut he mutinously refused; but he must take, added the Lords of Admiralty, a 10% cut.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Notable this week was his full-page panegyric of " Jack Tar Togs " in the Saturday Evening Post.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The Naval Brigade prepared for action laughing and singing, and Jack Tar indulged in promiscuous hornpipes between the conversations of his big guns.
From South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 6) From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, 15th Dec. 1899 by Creswicke, Louis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.