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Definition 2024


Davey_Jones'_locker

Davy Jones's locker

English

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Proper noun

Davy Jones's locker

  1. (nautical, idiomatic) The bottom of the ocean, especially as the grave for sailors. Also a common saying when something goes overboard and is lost.
    • 1774: Nicholas Cresswell, The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774-7 - "Damn my eyes," says he, "they are gone to Davy Jones's locker."
      NOTE: Partridge erroneously refers to this as from the journal of Richard rather than Nicholas Cresswell.
    • 1781 August, Isaac Kimber, Edward Kimber, “The Summer Theatre”, in The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, volume 50, page 360:
      ... are discovered singing a melancholy duet, bewailing the loss of an honest tar, whom they suppose (to use the burthen of the song) "is in Davy Jones's locker."

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