sea-lawyer
1. A shark, the tiger-shark. Also the grey or mangrove snapper.
| 1811 Lex Balatron., Sea Lawyer, a shark. 1876 Goode Catal. Fishes Bermudas 54 Lutjanus Caxis... Gray Snapper... Its extreme cunning..has gained it the soubriquet of ‘Sea Lawyer’. |
2. An argumentative sailor (see quot. 1867).
| 1829 W. N. Glascock Sailors & Saints I. ii. 31 What tack are we on now?—got hold of a sea-lawyer it seems. 1848 C. C. Clifford Aristoph. Frogs 37 But now they are sea-lawyers every one, And when you bid them pull, they do demur. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Sea-lawyer, an idle litigious 'long-shorer, more given to question orders than to obey them. One of the pests of the navy as well as of the mercantile marine. 1873 [see pleasure-navy s.v. pleasure n. 6 a]. 1953 Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood (1954) 4 Alfred Pomeroy Jones, sealawyer, born in Mumbles. 1967 A. Dubus Lieutenant iii. 78 Forget about this sea lawyer business and face your Goddamn punishment like a man. |