Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus.) an immigrant from England.

1859		W. Kelly Life in Victoria I 54: Sweet bad luck to the pair of yes, ye lousy lime-juicers.
1867		Sth Aus. Register (Adelaide, SA) 7 Oct. 2/4: The New Chums, or as they are called in bush slang, ‘Lime-juicers’.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 185: The Australian use for any Englishman is taken from the U.S. slang limey and limejuicer for a British sailor.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 229: lime juicer or limey, an Englishman.

2. (US, also juicer, juicey) an English or British person or sailing ship.

1851		Hereford Times 22 Nov. 6/1: As long as we lime-juicers are in sight [...] the Yankee skipper will say ‘How is the lime-juicer? has he clewed up?’.
1859		W. Cornwallis Panorama of New World I 58: Turn that lime-juicer out — go out, sir .
1867		Pall Mall Gaz. 18 Jan. 1/1: ‘Lime-juicer’ is the nickname for British sailors among American ones.
1867		Gloucester Jrnl 4 May 2/2: Keep your pecker up, juicey.
1876		F. Vincent Through and Through the Tropics 35: Hence we read in sea stories of the American Jack’s designation of the British tar as a ‘lime-juicer.’.
1880		New Bloomfield Times (PA) 23 Nov. 1/3: I’m sorry you’ve allowed anybody, much less a lime--juicer, to make you back down.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 May 23/4: The word ‘lime-juicer’ […] was the nick-name given to English seaman by American sailors before the latter were compelled (as the English were) to drink their fill of lime-juice daily at eight bells.
1889		Newcastle Courant 29 June 6/2: He’s a regular lime-juicer, sir [...] he’s a first-class seaman.
1893		Shields Dly Gaz. 28 Aug. 3/3: I was second mate of the British Racer, an old [...] limejuicer, and we was carryin’ coal from Cardiff to ’Frisco.
1898		(con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 4: Yes, sir, when yew speak to me, yew blank lime-juicer.
1899		H.E. Hamblen Yarns of Bucko Mate 48: I was taught to regard with contempt the well-dressed, clean, and wholesome English sailors whom I saw, as being a lot of ‘lime juicers’.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Jan. 4/6: Three English sailors [...] deserted from a British ‘lime-juicer’ at San Francisco.
1908		N.Y. Tribune 12 July 25/2: The [...] time it takes a trampline juicer to crawl from Hongkong to Penzance.
1907		J. London Road 13: He had sailed always on French merchant vessels, with the one exception of a voyage on a ‘lime-juicer’.
1918		A.N. Depew Gunner Depew 18: British ships are called ‘Lime-juicers’ and their sailors ‘Limeys’.
1918		E. O’Neill Bound East for Cardiff (1923) 8: It’s hard enough [...] to be stomachin’ the skoff on this rusty lime-juicer.
1918		Garland City Globe (UT) 21 Nov. 6/3: The Cushko was a ‘lime juicer’ sailing under the English flag. The skipper was a ‘lime-juicer,’ the first mate a ‘blue noser’.
1926		E. Walrond Tropic Death (1972) 94: Put that goddam lime juicer to bed, somebody, will ya?
1932		E. Hemingway letter 9 Feb. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 353: Could take Frog vessel to Suez and board lime juicer for (from) there to Mombassa.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 272: There were men there of all kinds, Canadians, Limejuicers, square heads.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 185: The Australian use for any Englishman is taken from the U.S. slang limey and limejuicer for a British sailor.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 235/2: lime juicer – a British immigrant.
1983		Maledicta VII 26: Lime juicer (or just lime juice) was used in the United States since the 1880s.