Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. smuggled spirits.

1780

R. Tomlinson Sl. Pastoral 11: No duds in my pocket, no sea-coal to burn!

2. money.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

a sailor.

1784		H. Lemoine ‘The Clever Fellow’ in Wit’s Mag. 156/1: My mott oft’ tips the knowing dive / When sea-crabs gang the stroll.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1933		Hull Dly Mail (Yorks) 27 June 5/3: It becomes necessary to sell herself in marriage to the sea-crab [...] in the interests of the Chinese revolution.

(US milit.) salt.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.
1941		S.F. Chronicle 15 June 5/4: Cream and sugar or salt and pepper are ‘sidearms’. Salt, alone, is ‘sea-dust’.

1. (US Und.) whisky [? the smuggling of whisky by sea during the Prohibition era, 1920–33].

1960, 1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

2. (gay) sailors as sex objects; thus seafood queen, a homosexual man who prefers sailors for sex [i.e. something to eat v. (4)].

1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 213: Sea food – A sailor.
1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 187/2: Sea-food. (Pacific Coast) Degenerates’ term for sailors.
1964		Lavender Lex. n.p.: seafood:–A sailor.
1967		‘Philip Barrows’ Whores, Queers & Others 2 31: ‘That was a gorgeous piece of seafood [...] Too bad he’s too young for me! and I don’t care for servicemen anyway...no money!’.
1978		(con. WWII) T. Sanchez Hollywoodland (1981) 65: I don’t like my sailor boys dead between the legs [...] I like my seafood served nice and crisp.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 26: ‘Miz Bosch!’ he hollered. ‘The seafood’s out!’.
1990		(ref. to 1944) A. Bérubé Coming Out Under Fire 86: Sailors were seafood.
2003		K. Cage Gayle 93/2: seafood queen n. gay man who picks up sailors for sexual purposes.
2012		asstr.org 12 Feb. 🌐 I really love fresh seafood. The allure, for me, was in their nice scent, smooth muscles, hard bodies, silky skin, hard erections.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 493: ‘Seafood supper this aft, so I heard’.

3. (US, also seafood mama) cunnilingus [the association of the vagina with fish n.¹ (1a)].

c.1930		(ref. late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 89: These items of sexual life had various names over the years. [...] If the guest was the active partner, he was muff-diving, a face-man, or after sea-food-mama.
1968		(con. mid–late 19C) S. Longstreet Wilder Shore 216: Various desires for perverted debauchery could be satisfied in the stalls, cribs or in alleys [...] Frenching, seafood mama, wick dipping.

4. (US, also seafood mama) a woman, esp. in the context of offering/receiving cunnilingus .

1981		J. Hayes in Chesebro Gayspeak 39: From prostitutes come [...] rough trade, seafood, and number.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 185: I [...] ’jaculate my jack / Into some seafood mama.

1. (US) a panhandler, a beggar.

1935

News (Frederick, MD) 15 Feb. 4/8: Panhandlers are called ‘seagulls’ probably because they’re scavengers of ‘the beach’.

2. (US miliit.) a (dish of) chicken.

1941

‘Soldiers’ Talk’ in Tampa Trib. (FL) 21 July 5/5: seagull, chicken.

3. (Aus./N.Z.) a casual wharf labourer.

1956		Argus (Melbourne) 2 June 34/2: Those Port Melbourne seagulls dropped a whisper that the Navy offered alternative accomodation.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 225: Ended up as a seagull on the Wellington wharves loading up the Home boats.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 115: He was a casual wharfie at the time I’m telling you about, during the Second World War it was, and they call casuals ‘seagulls’.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 97/2: seagull casual non-union wharf labourer, often a student, accepting the scraps of work the union men did not want; made obsolete in 1970s by stiffening of union and port rules and contraction of wharf labour following containerisation.
1998		Roberts et al. Arena Mag. (Fitzroy, Vic.) [article title] Seagulls of Swanson Dock.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

a stew; see cit. 1867.

1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome II 91: We’ve got for Dinner a Sea-pie.
1827		London Standard 1 Aug. 3/5: The captain ordered him to make a sea-pie.
1838		London Standard 23 Aug. 4/1: Doctor, come up, the sea-pie is burning.
1841		F.A. Olmsted Incidents of a Whaling Voyage 111: A young albatross was captured this morning which made an excellent ‘sea pie,’ or fricassee for supper, resembling veal in taste, although one or two of the officers refused to partake of the dish, inasmuch as the bird has no gizzard.
1845		E.J. Wakefield Adventure in N.Z. I 21: The sailors prepared the carcases in a dish called ‘sea-pie’.
1856		C. Abbey diary 28 May in Gosnell Before the Mast (1989) 42: We have had ‘Sea Pie’ for dinner.
1867		W.H. Smyth Sailor’s Word-Bk (1991) 603 : sea pie A dish of meat and vegetables, etc., boiled together, with a crust of paste, or in layers between crusts, the number of which denominate it a two or three decker.
1878		Dundee Courier 23 Feb. 1/5: Working Class Demonstration, 7 p.m. — Fish [...] Sea Pie, Pudding, etc.
1888		S. Wales Echo 21 Mar. 2/7: The men on Sunday had a good ‘sea pie’ for dinner.
1899		Hully Dly Mail 29 Sept. 4/2: Go on board and partake of ‘sea pie’.
1907		Diss Exp. 12 Apr. 7/1: A huge sea-pie was served to a party of fifty guests.
1918		‘Commander’ Clear the Decks! 64: The hungry pair sat down to a spread of coffee, sea-pie, and duff.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 418: ‘Sea-pie’ was a favourite dish.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 140: Sea Pie, upon investigation, showed evidence of meat mixed with uncleaned vegetables and yeastless dough.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: sea pie . . . stew with a crust.
1947		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 25 Aug. 4/2: ‘Have some sea-pie!’ he roars.
1951		E. Hill Territory 426: If you had a camp cook he rang the changes on ‘tinned dog’ with curry or sea-pie.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 44: Sea-pie today, see fugh-all tomorrow.

(US gay) a homosexual sailor.

1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 40: sea pussy (n.): Popular term to denote a sailor who takes the passive role in anal intercourse.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1988		H. Max Gay (S)language.

a herring.

1890		Spectator 3 May in Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues VI 137/1: A very common request at Lockhart’s coffee house in London is for ‘a doorstep and a sea-rover,’ i.e. for a halfpenny slice of bread and butter and a herring.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 108: At the words ‘doorstep and sea rover,’ the man at the bar produces a slice of bread and a herring.
1912		E. Pugh City of the World 272: The rank scent of ‘sea-rover,’ or bloater, is invariably paramount.

1. (US) facial whiskers.

1916

O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 27 Mar. [synd. col.] Wendell Philips Dodge, who press agents Mr Belasco, now has raised whiskers [...] He can [...] buy soap, tooth powder, etc. at half price [...] because the clerks take him for a physician. There are many other ways in which the seaweeds serve him well.

2. (UK gay) a sailor.

1932		T. Croft Cloven Hoof 65: ‘Seaweed’: sailors.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 297/2: seaweed a (homo) sexually available sailor.

3. (US milit.) spinach.

1932		‘Patois of Annapolis’ Sheboygan (WI) Press 17 Sept. 8/3: In the mess hall, spinach, when served, and it is served often, comes out as ‘seaweed’.
1941		S.F. Chronicle 15 June 5/4: Spinach is ‘seaweed.’.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: sea weed . . . spinach.

1. confused.

1860		London Eve. Standard 13 Sept. 4/5: But when he turns to the air above and around him he is all at sea.
1860		Birmingham Dly Post 5 Oct. 2/4: Deacon brown, who knows nothing of accent and quality, and is still more at sea among his aspirates.
1873		R. Broughton Nancy I 11: Mother looks rather at sea.
1877		Kerry Eve. Post 18 Aug. 4/6: But set him to work in a higher sphere, and be he ever so honest he will be all at sea.
1881		Manchester Courier 21 Apr. 6/1: When it came to definition, he was all at sea, nor could explain how or why [etc].
1890		B.L. Farjeon Mystery of M. Felix I 107: That’s the reason why we’ve been all to sea at what to do.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 23 Mar. 391: The old chap will be at sea without his music.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 13: I’m deep sea [...] lemme in on this gag.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Nov. 14/2: I do not know whether Robert Brothers is one or two men; but he (or they) is (or are) all at sea in his (or their) use of the Maori language.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 326: And he got them out as quick as he could, Jack Power and Crofton or whatever you call him and him in the bloody middle of them letting on to be all at sea and up with them on the bloody jaunting car.
1928		Derby Dly Teleg. 29 Dec. 10/3: he received an encouraging cheer, but he was all at sea with the two bowlers for sometime.
1937		A. Christie Murder in the Mews (1954) 39: I am utterly at sea. Barbara! Murdered!
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 109: I was all at sea.
1957		Hartlepool Northen Dly Mail 8 May 5/1: He was all at sea against Hinson, who boxes [...] in the traditional English style.
1997		L. Davies Candy 29: I was all at sea, here in the bush.

2. drunk.

1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 226: He is [...] all at sea.
2002		Cat Howell’s Book of Naughty Nomenclature 🌐 Drunk [...] addled, afloat all at sea.

(Aus.) an all-night drinking session.

1945		Baker Aus. Lang.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 63: You’re safely set for a first-class dirty night at sea, and no dusty pup has any right to do a mount on you.

to masturbate a woman.

[1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 3/2: A trip to the Red Sea, a lewd act].
2002		C. Fothergill-Brown ‘WWE Confidential Report’ 30 Jun. 🌐 And as The Rock put his hands ever so softly on your knee…[He is baseball’s all time steals leader.] slid his hand up slowly inch by inch…and what did you do? YOU CUT THE ROCK OFF ON SECOND BASE! [Moses is famous for parting the Red Sea.].
2002		‘Male & Female Masturbation Terms’ Spankmag.com 22 Oct. 🌐 Parting the Red Sea.