Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK/US) a marine; also attrib. [early US marine uniforms had a leather neckband, a.k.a. ‘dog collar’].

1871		N.Y. Sun 18 Jan. n.p.: ‘Don’t suppose you know what leather necks is, do you? Well, them’s poor marines [...] they wear them leather stocks to keep their heads up straight’.
1898		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Feb. 8/4: ‘It wouldn’t a-bin so bad if it a-bin a blue marine,’ he said ‘but a red marine! [...] A crawlin’ leather-neck!’.
1904		Kipling ‘The Bonds of Discipline’ in Traffics and Discoveries 50: Of course the lower deck wasn’t pleased to see a leather-neck interpretin’ a strictly maritime part.
1917		letter in K.F. Cowing Dear Folks at Home (1919) 4: Hit the deck, leatherneck – Rise and Shine.
1927		(con. 1914–18) L. Nason Three Lights from a Match 44: Do yuh wanta find the doughboys? [...] Do yuh wanta find the leathernecks, I know where they are.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 361: To paraphrase a rough leatherneck expression, his attitude had been, ‘Use ’em and leave ’em’.
1939		E. O’Brien One Way Ticket 25: Look at that stupid leatherneck [...] Twenty-one bucks and a horse blanket. He’s a big shot, so he smokes cigars.
1949		J.H. Burns Lucifer with a Book 91: During the war when I was a leatherneck.
1952		W. Winchell On Broadway 28 Aug. [synd. col.] Mainbocher designs those glamorous uniforms for lady Marines [...] He will unveil his latest creation this week for Gal Leathernecks.
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 18: Leathernecks were the elite, supermen, God’s greatest invention.
1979		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Short Timers (1985) 105: Hey, hit the deck, leatherneck, we’re moving.
1988		(con. WWII) S. Hynes Flights of Passage 148: I felt like a character in [...] a recruiting movie, Freddy the Fearless Leatherneck.
1999		N. Stephenson Cryptonomicon 163: Detachment 2702 – a hand-picked wrecking crew of combat-hardened leathernecks.
2012		(con. 1954) ‘Jack Tunney’ Tomato Can Comeback [ebook] A rtall, rough counterpuncher sometimes called ‘the Battling Leatherneck’.

2. (orig. Aus.) a roustabout [the effects of the sun on skin].

1897		Worker (Brisbane) 4 Sept. 8/4: The ‘rouseabout,’ his willing slave, who's ever on the spot / To take the falling fleece away and fill his ‘water pot,’ / He sneeringly terms ‘loppy’ and a ‘leather-neck,’ and if / He doesn't ‘chuck’ himself about he swears to knock him stiff.
1902		Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 219: He downed him on the ground, / And he whipped his neck around, / And he ‘pinked’ him like a leather-neck when squatters paid a pound!
1943		Baker ‘Influence of American Sl. on Australia’ in AS XVIII:4 256: A leatherneck is a marine to you; with us he is a station handy-man.

3. (US) a thug, a lout; thus leathernecked, as term of abuse.

1906		Monro City Democrat (MO) 18 Jan. 7/3: Why, you leather-necked, swivel-eyed son of a sea cook.
1912		Van Loan ‘Little Sunset’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 113: You big leatherneck, you ought to be catching barrels off a beer wagon!
1999		J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 137: I’ve got a lot of unpleasantness going on. A lot besides leathernecks wanting to send my head out of the park.