shellback

/ʃɛlˌbæk/
noun
  1. A sailor who has crossed the equator and participated in a traditional ceremony marking the event.
    • The shellbacks initiated the pollywogs with a playful ritual on deck.
    • My grandfather was a shellback from his time in the navy in the 1950s.
    • After crossing the equator, the crew celebrated the new shellbacks with a ceremony.
  2. A veteran or experienced sailor, especially one who has spent many years at sea.
    • The young cadets listened carefully to the shellback's stories of storms and distant ports.
    • As a shellback, she knew every rope and knot on the ship.
    • The old shellback could predict the weather just by looking at the clouds.
  3. A hard-shelled animal, such as a turtle or a crab.
    • We spotted a shellback crawling across the sand toward the ocean.
    • A large shellback hid under a rock in the tide pool.
    • The children were excited to see a shellback at the aquarium.
Antonyms
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