sailor
Pluralsailors
- 1A member of a ship's crew who carries out the ordinary work of the vessel, ranking below the captain and officers; a common seaman or mariner.
Like the rank-and-file staff who keep a business running while the managers give the orders.
The sailors scrubbed the deck while the captain plotted the course.
Every sailor aboard answered to the bosun before reaching the officers.
Similarseaman, mariner, seafarer, tar, jack
Note
Here the word means the rank and file, set apart from those who command. Jules Verne's 1873 list keeps them distinct: "common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers… naval officers." It fits a navy crew as readily as a merchant one, and a 2025 news report speaks of a missing Navy sailor. Its informal companions are jack, tar and jacktar, all names for the ordinary hand rather than the officer.
- 2Someone who sails, especially one who earns a living crewing or navigating ships and other watercraft.
A skilled sailor reads the wind and currents before setting out.
Sailors navigated by the stars long before modern instruments existed.
Similarseaman, mariner, seafarer
Oppositelandlubber
Note
The spelling hides a plainer word. Middle English had sailer, sayler, saylere, built simply from sail and the agent ending, and the -er was later altered to -or. That native formation pushed aside marinel, a borrowing from Old French marinel with the same meaning and a relative of mariner. German Segler is its cognate.
- 3
- 4A stiff straw hat with a low, flat crown and a flat, circular brim.
She pinned a ribbon around her new straw sailor before the boat party.
Striped blazers and flat sailors were the fashion that summer.
Similarboater
Note
In the trade, the hat is usually named by its straw or its style. Albert E. Edgar's How to Advertise a Retail Store (1909) prices children's "straw sailors" by size, alongside "Milan sailors" with white or cream ribbon. Its variants had names of their own. Harry Inwards's Straw Hats describes the "Breton" sailor, whose brim edge turns slightly upward, and a steady trade in sailors for ladies.
- 5Any of various nymphalid butterflies with white markings on a dark background, commonly flying by gliding rather than flapping.
A sailor settled on the damp leaf, its dark wings banded with white.
High in the forest canopy, sailors glide far more than they flap.
Note
This common name does not belong to a single species. It spans three genera: Neptis, Pseudoneptis and Phaedyma. A precise identification therefore needs the genus or species name. The shared features that hold the group together under one English name are white markings on a dark ground and a flight that is mostly gliding.
- 6A brick laid vertically on its smallest end, with its widest face turned toward the outside of the wall.
The bricklayer placed a band of sailors to frame the window opening.
A single sailor was set vertically at the corner of the arch.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of sailor apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
An alteration of the earlier 'sailer', from Middle English 'sailer', 'sayler', equivalent to 'sail' plus '-or'. It is cognate with German 'Segler' and replaced the borrowed Middle English word 'marinel' (from Old French 'marinel').