Davy Jones's locker
Davy Jones's locker proper noun: the bottom of the sea, seen as a grave for sailors and the resting place of anything that goes overboard and is lost.
Proper noun
Davy Jones's locker
- The bottom of the sea, seen as a grave for sailors and the resting place of anything that goes overboard and is lost.
- "Damn my eyes," says he, "they are gone to Davy Jones's locker."
NOTE: Partridge erroneously refers to this as from the journal of Richard rather than Nicholas Cresswell.1774, Nicholas Cresswell, The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774-7 - ... are discovered singing a melancholy duet, bewailing the loss of an honest tar, whom they suppose (to use the burthen of the song) "is in Davy Jones's locker."1781 August, Isaac Kimber, Edward Kimber, “The Summer Theatre”, in The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, volume 50, page 360
- "Damn my eyes," says he, "they are gone to Davy Jones's locker."
Forms of Davy Jones's locker
| alternative form | Davy Jones' locker |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Davy Jones locker |
| alternative form | Davey Jones's locker |
| alternative form | Davey Jones' locker |
| alternative form | Davey Jones locker |
| alternative form | Davie Jones's locker |
| alternative form | Davie Jones' locker |
| alternative form | Davie Jones locker |
| alternative form | Davy's locker |
| alternative form | Davey's locker |
| alternative form | Davie's locker |
Origin of Davy Jones's locker
There has been much speculation about the origin of this term, but none have been substantiated. See more at Davy Jones' Locker on Wikipedia.
Questions about Davy Jones's locker
- What does Davy Jones's locker mean?
- Davy Jones's locker means the bottom of the sea, seen as a grave for sailors and the resting place of anything that goes overboard and is lost.
- What part of speech is Davy Jones's locker?
- Davy Jones's locker is a proper noun.
Words near Davy Jones's locker in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Davy Jones's locker (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-Davy Jones's locker.ogg.
Cite this entry: “Davy Jones's locker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/davy_jones%27s_locker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.