Old Man of the Sea

American  

noun

1. (inThe Arabian Nights' Entertainments ) an old man who clung to the shoulders of Sindbad the Sailor for many days and nights.

2. a burden, annoyance, care, or the like, from which it is extremely difficult to free oneself.

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Example Sentences

It took a while to realise that alcohol had been the equivalent of the Old Man of the Sea for most of my adult life.

From The Guardian

“I was on my knees, and on the point of possessing my darling, when two bearded bathers, the old man of the sea and his brother, came out of the sea with exclamations of ribald encouragement, and four months later she died of typhus in Corfu.”

From The New Yorker

This Old Man of the Sea was a crack hand with a sextant, a nautical almanac, and a tide table to be sure, but what he really taught me was the way in which all the world’s oceans are at once connected—obvious enough given the continuous flow of water around the continents—but also separate.

From MSNBC

“The old man of the sea,” I remembered.

From Literature

The Old Man of the Sea smiled, showing off his mossy green teeth.

From Literature