Davy Jones's locker
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
The bottom of the sea, especially imagined as the grave of drowned sailors and wrecked ships. Nautical and often macabre. It can refer to the seabed, a wreck's destination, or death by drowning. Regional use: British and international nautical English.
Origin
The phrase appears in the 1726 book The Four Years Voyages of Capt. George Roberts, a work sometimes attributed to Daniel Defoe; the Folger catalogue notes that the attribution is disputed. The passage already assumes readers understand a sailor's fate at sea. Tobias Smollett described Davy Jones as a frightening sea spirit in 1751. Who or what first supplied the name remains unknown; confident links to a particular pirate, biblical Jonah or a Caribbean spirit go beyond the surviving evidence.
Research Sources
Variants
- Go to Davy Jones's locker
- Send to Davy Jones's locker
Usage Examples
- One more winter gale and that rotten punt will go to Davy Jones's locker.
- The reef has sent more than one careless skipper to Davy Jones's locker.
- They recovered the bell before the whole wreck slipped into Davy Jones's locker.