Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the naval service, a sailor as distinguished from a marine: so called from the color of his jacket.
  • noun A name given in the United States to hymenopterous insects of the family Sphegidæ. The predominant color is blue. The best-known are the Pelopœus cœruleus, a northern species, and the Chlorion cyaneum, whose range is more to the south. Both are known under the collective name of mud-daubers. See cuts under Ammophila, digger-wasp, and mud-dauber.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But, above all, the old tyrant wouldn't have a blue-jacket, from stem to starn, if so be he'd got nothing ado but talk sweet; I s'pose he fancied his girl was mad after the whole blessed cloth.

    The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 1, August 1850 of Literature, Science and Art. Various

  • This invitation Jupp gladly accepted in the same spirit in which it was given; and then, with another hearty "good-night" from the vicar, to which he responded by touching his cap and giving a salute in regular blue-jacket fashion, he went on his way back to the little railway - station beyond the village where Master Teddy had first made his acquaintance -- much to their mutual benefit as things now looked!

    Teddy The Story of a Little Pickle

  • With blue-jacket and trousers he is bigger and stronger;

    Life and Remains of John Clare "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" J. L. Cherry

  • Amongst the men, two blue-jackets were killed outright, as well as Phillips, the ship's carpenter of the _Hankow Lin_; while one blue-jacket was wounded severely, and two slightly, as well as another of the ship's regular hands.

    The Penang Pirate and, The Lost Pinnace

  • Perhaps that is why no blue-jacket, sober or drunk, was ever repulsed from the door of the Bilkins mansion.

    Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature Various

  • A blue-jacket promptly jumped overboard and rescued him from a watery grave, and Denis, instead of being converted into pork or sausages, became a prisoner of war and a pet.

    Stand By! Naval Sketches and Stories 1925

  • 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.

    Billy Budd 1924

  • A blue-jacket on the sharp bow of the little vessel waved an arm at Farnol's cry, and presently the rescuing party was alongside.

    The Cruise of the Dry Dock T. S. Stribling 1923

  • You have the Royal Marines; and though the Royal Marine Artillery practically do the same work on the day of battle as the blue-jacket, yet you have that great tradition going on.

    Canada's Contribution in Men to the Imperial Navy 1916

  • Then he, too, leaped to the deck, and a stocky cockney blue-jacket poked his nose over the rail.

    Cappy Ricks Retires 1918

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