shellback
Americannoun
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an old sailor.
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a person who has crossed the equator by boat.
noun
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informal a sailor who has crossed the equator Compare polliwog
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an experienced or old sailor
Etymology
Origin of shellback
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. & Mrs. Hoover were exempt, he being a "shellback" with 14 crossings of the Equator to his credit, more than anyone else present except his naval aide, Commander A. T. Beauregard.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then he was shoved down a greased slide, belabored through another gauntlet, and pronounced a shellback.
From Time Magazine Archive
They have adjusted to a new time and a new social structure, and this is not necessarily because, as one old shellback snorted, "The '400' has been marked down to $3.98."
From Time Magazine Archive
They are far different from the old-line shellback malcontents who were duck soup for Curran's earlier pinko type of organizing, and they are not obliged to hold union cards.
From Time Magazine Archive
One of the men, an old time shellback, bent that sail on to the cylinder so snugly and cleverly that almost two-thirds of the surface was protected.
From The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers by Rolt-Wheeler, Francis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
