Limey

//ˈlaɪmi// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An Englishman or other Briton, or a person of British descent; an English or British immigrant. Australia, New-Zealand, US, ethnic, slang, slur

    "Ya look like anything ’cept a tourist who’s come to lose his wad and they get a bad case of nose trouble. Take yaself. Anyone can see ya’re a Limey even before ya start talking."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of limey (“an Englishman or other Briton”). alt-of
  3. 3
    a man of English descent wordnet
  4. 4
    An English or British ship. dated, derogatory, slang
Adjective
  1. 1
    Resembling limes (the fruit); lime-like.
  2. 2
    Of, or pertaining to, limes (the fruit).

    "This drink is full of limey goodness."

Synonyms

All synonyms
abable seamanable-bodied seamanancient marinerargonautaussie

Example

More examples

"This drink is full of limey goodness."

Etymology

In adjectival senses, by surface analysis, lime + -y. In the sense of Englishman, reduced from the 19th century term lime-juicer (“a British ship”), from the lime juice British ships carried to ward off scurvy.

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