Word.ws English Dictionary

Captain's Cloak

Captain's Cloak proper noun: the 36th and last of the Articles of War, effectively giving the ship's captain free rein in disciplining the crew: "All other crimes not capital committed by any person or persons in the fleet, which are not mentioned in this act, or for which no punishment is hereby directed to be inflicted, shall be punished by the laws and customs in such cases used at sea.".

Proper noun

the Captain's Cloak

  1. (UK, colloquial, historical) The 36th and last of the Articles of War, effectively giving the ship's captain free rein in disciplining the crew: "All other crimes not capital committed by any person or persons in the fleet, which are not mentioned in this act, or for which no punishment is hereby directed to be inflicted, shall be punished by the laws and customs in such cases used at sea."
    • “Growl you may, but go you must,” Lewrie laughed, clapping him on the shoulder in parting. “Old Navy proverb. Might be the Thirty-Seventh Article of War, hey, right after 'The Captain's Cloak'?”2018, Dewey Lambdin, The Gun Ketch
    • Pigot then opened a copy of the Articles of War, and started reading from number thirty-six (the so-called 'Captain's Cloak') which covered 'All other crimes not capital […]2009, Dudley Pope, The Black Ship

Questions about Captain's Cloak

What does Captain's Cloak mean?
Captain's Cloak means the 36th and last of the Articles of War, effectively giving the ship's captain free rein in disciplining the crew: "All other crimes not capital committed by any person or persons in the fleet, which are not mentioned in this act, or for which no punishment is hereby directed to be inflicted, shall be punished by the laws and customs in such cases used at sea.".
What part of speech is Captain's Cloak?
Captain's Cloak is a proper noun.

Words near Captain's Cloak in the dictionary

  1. Captain Save-A-Hoe
  2. Captain Swan
  3. Captain Swing
  4. captain's call
  5. captain's calls
  6. Captain's Cloak
  7. captain's daughter
  8. captain's goal
  9. captain's goals
  10. captain's pick
  11. captain's picks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Captain's Cloak (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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