lime-juicer

[ lahym-joo-ser ]

noun

, Older Slang: Usually Disparaging and Offensive.

1. a British sailor.
2. a British person.

Sensitive Note

See limey.

Word History and Origins

Origin of lime-juicer¹

First recorded in 1855–60; so called because British sailors were required by law to drink lime juice to ward off scurvy

Example Sentences

These were rather numerous (as Nares contemptuously put it) “for a lime-juicer.”

From Project Gutenberg

He had sailed always on French merchant vessels, with the one exception of a voyage on a "lime-juicer."

From Project Gutenberg

At noon we picked up a ship ahead, a lime-juicer, travelling in the same direction, under lower-topsails and one upper-topsail.

From Project Gutenberg

And we were near him, on the poop, when he drove by an east-bound lime-juicer, hove-to under upper-topsails.

From Project Gutenberg

These were rather numerous (as Nares contemptuously put it) "for a lime-juicer."

From Project Gutenberg