Jacktar

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sailor; especially, one in the Royal Navy. British

    "O! the next that steps up is a jolly Jack tar, / He sailed with Lord [Nelson]^([sic]), during last war: / He’s right on the sea, Old England to view: / He’s come a pace-egging with so jolly a crew."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of jacktar. British, alt-of

Synonyms

All synonyms
sailorjackneptuniantar

Example

More examples

"O! the next that steps up is a jolly Jack tar, / He sailed with Lord [Nelson]^([sic]), during last war: / He’s right on the sea, Old England to view: / He’s come a pace-egging with so jolly a crew."

Etymology

From jack (“common man or sailor”) + tar (“tarpaulin”), used for a common sailor dating back to the 1600s.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.