Jump To:

• Davy Jones's locker
  Davy Jones's locker

  noun

  the ocean's bottom, especially when regarded as the grave of all who perish at sea.
• Davy Jones's Locker
  Davy Jones's Locker

  Sailors'slang for the bottom of the ocean. Someone drowned at sea may be said to have “gone down to Davy Jones's Locker.”

Davy Jones's locker

American  

[john-ziz, johnz] / ˈdʒoʊn zɪz, dʒoʊnz /

noun

1. the ocean's bottom, especially when regarded as the grave of all who perish at sea.

---

Davy Jones's Locker Cultural  

1. Sailors'slang for the bottom of the ocean. Someone drowned at sea may be said to have “gone down to Davy Jones's Locker.”

---

Davy Jones's locker Idioms  

1. Also, Davy's locker. The bottom of the sea, especially the grave of those who die at sea. For example, Caught out at sea during the hurricane, they thought they were heading for Davy Jones's locker. This term, first recorded in 1726, alludes to Davy Jones, a name given to the evil spirit of the sea. The ultimate origin of both Davy and Jones is disputed. A logical theory is that Jones referred to the biblical Jonah who was swallowed by a whale, and Davy was a corruption of a West Indian word for “devil.”

---

Etymology

Origin of Davy Jones's locker

First recorded in 1795–1805

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Davy Jones's locker Davy Jones's Locker

Iran’s navy has mostly found its way to Davy Jones’s locker.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

Mr Sherborne said on Thursday it was a "shame" that messages where "lying at the bottom of the sea in Davy Jones's locker".

From BBC ● May 13, 2022

What you see here is a Brazilian maniac dropping into the tsunami-manifestation of Davy Jones's locker, and somehow living not only tell the tale, but also accept to an award for it.

From Golf Digest ● Apr. 30, 2018

Like everybody else, scientists have long wanted to know what Davy Jones's locker holds, besides sunken ships.

From Time Magazine Archive

He’ll put us in Davy Jones’s locker if he keeps this up!

From Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle; or, Daring Adventures in Elephant Land by Victor [pseud.] Appleton

A small group has collected before Mr. Wyllie's "Davy Jones's Locker," which they inspect solemnly for some time before venturing to commit themselves to any opinion.

From Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 98 June 7, 1890 by Various

I. A small group has collected before Mr. Wyllie's "Davy Jones's Locker," which they inspect solemnly for some time before venturing to commit themselves to any opinion.

From Voces Populi by F. Anstey

Thus, then, Davy Jones's Locker became, by a mixture of theogonies, 'the ocean, the deep sea-bottom, the place to which the body was committed, and to which the souls of the wicked fled.'

From Storyology Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore by Benjamin Taylor

I tell thee, Jack, thou'rt Free, as Free as I am; leastways if we get to Jamaica without going to Davy Jones's Locker; for on blue water no man can say he's Free.

From The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... by George Augustus Sala

If we did she has pulled herself together and come back from Davy Jones's Locker to a certainty.

From The Battleship Boys' First Step Upward or, Winning Their Grades as Petty Officers by Frank Gee Patchin

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• expanse
• lake
• ocean
• pond
• surf

---