Jolly Roger

Noun

Jolly Roger (plural Jolly Rogers)

1. The traditional flag used on European and American pirate ships, and, more recently, by submarine crews, often pictured as a white skull and crossbones on a black field; the blackjack.
   • A Day or two after they parted, [Francis] Spriggs was choſe Captain by the reſt, and a black Enſign was made, which they called Jolly Roger, with the ſame Device that Captain [Edward] Low carried, viz. a white Skeliton in the Middle of it, with a Dart in one Hand ſtriking a bleeding Heart, and in...1724, Charles Johnson [pseudonym], “Of Captain Spriggs and His Crew”, in A General History of the Pyrates, […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for, and sold by T. Warner, […], →OCLC, pages 411–412
   • The Hispaniola still lay where she had anchored; but, sure enough, there was the Jolly Roger—the black flag of piracy—flying from her peak.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Narrative Resumed by Jim Hawkins; the Garrison in the Stockade”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part IV...

   Synonyms:

   black flag, Roger