tell it the marines!

Ads

U.S. Marine Corps www.marines.com/ The Few. The Proud. The Marines. Semper Fidelis; Always Faithful

Get The Dictionary.com Mobile App! www.dictionary.com/mobile Enjoy Exclusive Features like Voice Search! iPhone, Android, iPad, BlackBerry, Windows & More. Download Now!

adjective

of or pertaining to the sea; existing in or produced by the sea: marine vegetation.

pertaining to navigation or shipping; nautical; naval; maritime.

serving on shipboard, as soldiers.

of or belonging to the marines.

adapted for use at sea: a marine barometer.

noun

a member of the U.S. Marine Corps.

one of a class of naval troops serving both on shipboard and on land.

seagoing ships collectively, especially with reference to nationality or class; shipping in general.

a picture with a marine subject; seascape.

10.

naval affairs, or the department of a government, as in France, having to do with such affairs.

00:10

Tell it the marines! is always a great word to know.

So is zedonk. Does it mean:

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Idioms

11.

dead marine, Australian Slang. an empty bottle of beer or spirits.

12.

tell it/that to the marines!, I don't believe your story; I refuse to be fooled.

Origin:
1325–75; Middle English maryne < Middle French marin (feminine marine) < Latin marīnus of the sea, derivative of mare sea; see -ine¹

Related forms

in·ter·ma·rine, adjective

non·ma·rine, adjective, noun

sem·i·ma·rine, adjective, noun

su·per·ma·rine, adjective

un·ma·rine, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source

Link To tell it the marines!

Collins

World English Dictionary

marine (məˈriːn)

—*adj*
1.	of, found in, or relating to the sea
2.	of or relating to shipping, navigation, etc
3.	of or relating to a body of seagoing troops: marine corps
4.	of or relating to a government department concerned with maritime affairs
5.	used or adapted for use at sea: a marine camera

—n
6.	shipping and navigation in general: the merchant marine
7.	(capital when part of a name) a member of a marine corps or similar body
8.	a picture of a ship, seascape, etc
9.	informal tell it to the marines an expression of disbelief

[C15: from Old French marin, from Latin marīnus, from mare sea]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

marine

early 15c., from M.Fr. marin (fem. marine), from O.Fr. marin, from L. marinus (fem. marina) "of the sea," from mare (gen. maris) "sea," from PIE *mori-/*mari- "body of water, lake." Cognate with O.E. mere "sea, lake, pool, pond," from P.Gmc. *mari. Noun meaning "soldier who serves on a ship" is from

1670s, from Fr. marine, from the O.Fr. adjective.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

marine

(mə-rēn') Pronunciation Key

Relating to the sea.
Relating to a system of open-ocean and unprotected coastal habitats, characterized by exposure to wave action, tidal fluctuation, and ocean currents and by the absence of trees, shrubs, or emergent vegetation. Water in the marine system is at or near the full salinity of seawater. Compare lacustrine , palustrine , riverine.

Slang Dictionary

marine (recruit) definition

and marine officer

n.
an empty beer or liquor bottle. (See also dead soldier; dead marine. These expressions are probably meant as derogatory to either marines or officer.) : Every now and then the gentle muttering of the customers was accented by the breaking of a marine as it hit the floor. , There's a marine officer laying in the fireplace.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

Matching Quote

"There are many that I know and I know it. They are many
that I know and they know it. They are all of them
themselves and they repeat it and I hear it. Always I
listen to it. Slowly I come to understand it. Many
years I listened and did not know it. I heard it, I
understood it some, I did not know I heard it. They
repeat themselves now and I listen to it. Every way
that they do it now I hear it. Now each time very
slowly I come to understand it. Always it comes very
slowly the completed understanding of it, the
repeating each one does to tell it the whole history of
the being in each one, always now I hear it. Always
now slowly I understand it."

-Gertrude Stein

Enjoy Dictionary.com ad-free! Learn more