lobster

Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

A nick name for a soldier, from the colour of his clothes. To boil one's lobster, for a churchman to become a soldier: lobsters, which are of a bluish black, being made red by boiling. I will not make a lobster kettle of my ****, a reply frequently made by the nymphs of the Point at Portsmouth, when requested by a soldier to grant him a favour.

Related Words

Lobster
·add. ·noun As a term of opprobrium or contempt: A gullible, awkward, bungling, or undesirable perso...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
lobster
n. The name is often carelessly usedin Australia for the Crayfish (q.v.). ...

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris
lobster
A well-known marine crustacean, Astacus marinus. Also, red-coats of old; whence lobster-box, a collo...

The Sailor's Word-Book
butterfly-lobster
n. a marine crustacean, socalled from the leaf-like expansion of the antennae. It is «the highly sp...

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris
cobler's-lobster
a cow s heel. Cambridgesh. ...

A glossary of provincial and local words used in England by Francis Grose
lobster-boat
A bluff, clincher-built vessel, fitted with a well, to preserve the lobsters alive. ...

The Sailor's Word-Book
lobster-toad
See deep-sea crab. ...

The Sailor's Word-Book