A couple of weeks ago, I shared some nautical terms I’ve come across which reflect our maritime heritage in everyday language. I still don’t know if other seagoing nations have a similar rich naval vocabulary!
Here is another selection:
- Down the hatch
- Edging forward
- Fathom out
- Feeling under the weather
- Fend off
- Field day
- First-rate
- From stem to stern:
- Full to the gunwales
- Get underway
- Give a wide berth
- Give leeway
- Give/cut some slack
- Go by the board
- Go off on another tack
- Go overboard:
- Groggy
- Ground swell
- Hand over fist
- Hard and fast
- High and dry
- Hit the deck
- Hot pursuit
- In the offing
- Keel over/keep an even keel
- Know the ropes
- Loose cannon
- Loose ends
- Main stay
- On the wrong tack:
Lois Elsden 