Jolly Roger
2
8.1
- noun
- /ˈdʒɑːli ˈrɒdʒər/
:
Jolly Roger
- A land where mermaids swam in the crystal-clear waters of the lagoon, where boys could shoot bows and arrows... ...and play pirates aboard the Jolly Roger.
- flying the Jolly Roger
Examples
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The pirate ship hoisted the Jolly Roger to signal its identity to nearby vessels.
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A tattered Jolly Roger dangles listlessly from the mast, and a pirate crew lolls in the shade of the luffing sail.
Fiction book (1995) -
And the Jolly Roger Lifted into the sky as Peter and the Boys escaped with the treasure!
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Up the Jolly Roger!
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"It looked like a skull-and-crossbones motif, a Jolly Roger.
Blog text (1) -
Hook and his blood thirsty crew went ashore leaving the Jolly Roger unguarded.
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Hoist the Jolly Roger.
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"Flying a Jolly Roger on a million-dollar boat... you're taller than I expected.
Fiction book (2000) -
Look, their flag is flying from the main mast—the "Jolly Roger."
Fiction book (2000) -
At their height in the early eighteenth century, the Caribbean pirates employed 2,400 men aboard 25 to 30 ships, many of which flew the Jolly Roger, with its infamous skull and crossbones.
Academic text (2009)
Synonyms
1
3.7
Sailors who steal from ships fly a black flag with a white skull and crossbones
1
6.5
A flag that is black with a white skull and crossbones used by pirates
1
9.4
A black flag with a white skull and crossbones used by pirates
Surface Forms
Morphology
Jolly + Roger
Neither 'jolly' (cheerful) nor 'Roger' (a personal name or radio term) gives any cue to a black flag with skull-and-crossbones; the phrase is a conventional historical name for a pirate flag rather than a compositional description. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not be able to derive the specific meaning from them, so the item is idiomatic and unpredictable.
Etymology
Jolly Roger comes from the black flag pirates used with a white skull and crossbones. Pirates raised this scary flag to frighten other ships into giving up without a fight, so today the Jolly Roger means 'pirate flag' or a 'sign of danger'.