Sailor
name, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A person who sails; one whose occupation is sailing or navigating ships or other waterborne craft.
"He's a talented sailor and has spent many years at sea."
- 2 a stiff hat made of straw with a flat crown wordnet
- 3 A person who sails; one whose occupation is sailing or navigating ships or other waterborne craft.; In particular, a member of the crew of a (civilian or military) vessel, as opposed to a captain, admiral, etc.; a mariner; a common seaman.
"Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, […] naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter."
- 4 a serviceman in the navy wordnet
- 5 A person who sails; one whose occupation is sailing or navigating ships or other waterborne craft.; A person who sails sailing boats (as opposed to boats powered by other means) as a sport or recreation.
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 any member of a ship's crew wordnet
- 7 Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genera Neptis, Pseudoneptis and Phaedyma, having white markings on a dark base and commonly flying by gliding.
- 8 A stiff straw hat with a flat, circular brim and a low, flat crown.
"Straw Sailors. Children's large-leaf straw sailors, in new shapes, smooth or rough straw . Sizes 6 to 64. 80c, $1.00, $1.50 and $2.00. Milan sailors in new, large shapes, with white or cream ribbon."
- 9 A brick, for example in a course of brickwork, that is laid vertically on its shortest end (smallest face), with its widest face facing the outside of the wall.
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"A sailor frequently has no time to get his sea legs after leaving port before a battle starts."
Etymology
Alteration of earlier sailer, from Middle English sailer, sayler, saylere, equivalent to sail + -or. Cognate with German Segler (“sailor”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English marinel, marynell (“sailor”) borrowed from Old French marinel (“sailor”). See mariner.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.