Pirate Dictionary

An Incomprehensive and Unextensive Pirate Dictionary*

A guide of how to speak/write like a pirate especially when creating your treasure hunt clues.

Abaft: Towards the back
Aft: The actual back
Ahoy: Hello
Arr: Agreed
Avast: Stop
Aye: Yes
Aye Aye: I’ll get on with that now
Be: Am, are or is
Bilge rat: Ship’s gutter scum
Black spot: Cursed mark of death
Blimey: Gosh
Boatswain: Deck boss
Booty: Treasure
Bounty: Price on a criminal’s head
Buccaneer: Pirate
Bucko: Mate
Cap’n: Captain
Cat’o’nine tails: Whip
Crow’s nest: Main mast top lookout
Cutlass: Pirate’s curved sword
Davy Jones’ locker: Lethal bottom of the sea
Deck: Ship’s floor
Doubloon: Spanish gold coin
Duffle: Pirate’s belongings
Fair winds: Good luck
Fiddlers Green: Pirate heaven
Flog: Whip
Fore: Front/forward
Futtock shroud: Lower and top masts joint
Gangway: Make way
Gentlemen of fortune: Pirates
Grog: Rum mixture
Grub: Food
Hands: Crew
Haven: Safe place
Head: Loo
Heave ho: Pull
Hold: Cargo bay
Jacob’s Ladder: Rope ladder on to ship
Jolly Roger: Skull and crossbones flag
Keelhaul: Drag someone around the ship underneath the barnacled keel
Lad: Young man
Land ahoy: Land in sight
Land lubber: A clumsy oaf
Lass: Young woman
Leg irons: Ankle cuffs
Lily livered: Scared
Loaded to the gunwales: Drunk
Loot: See Booty
Marooned: Abandoned on an island
Matey: Shipmate
Me: My
Me beauty: My beautiful thing
Me hearty: My friend
Monkey: Small cannon
Nay: No
Narr: A non-existent made up word
Oh: See Blimey
Oi: Excuse me
Peg leg: Wooden artificial leg
Pieces of eight: Spanish silver coin worth 8 reales
Pirate: Robber on the sea
Plunder: Steal
Poop deck: Furthest and highest deck to the rear
Port: Left
Powder monkey: Gunner’s assistant
Privateer: Government sanctioned pirate
Quartermaster: Sailor second-in-command
Quark: Fundamental constituent of matter
Rigging: Ropes, mast and sails
Rullock: Oar hole
Salty sea dog: Long term sailor
Scallywag: Naughty person
Scurvy dog: Self esteem reducer
Scuttle: Breach the hull to sink a ship
Shanty: Song of the sea
Shipshape: Tidy
Shiver me timbers: See Blimey
Son of a Biscuit Eater: (Bastard) son of a sailor
Starboard: Right
Swag: See Loot
Swashbuckling: Fighting
Thar: Not here
Three sheets to the wind: Drunk
Titivate: See Shipshape
Walk the plank: Walk the plank
Wench: Lady
Weigh anchor: Raise the anchor
Ye: You
Yer: Your
Yee-haw: See a Cowboy Dictionary
Yo-ho-ho: Laughter

Putting words together from the Pirate Dictionary

String phrases together to the point of excess, crammed with strings of adjectives. Drop the letters G and V. Use the word BE when referring to yourself.

So if you were to say Follow the corridor to the end then look up when you open the door. It could translate to something like: Ye be walkin’ th’ plank down th’ long dark cutlass corridor, cast yer eyes to th’ skies when the door do be ajar.

Congratulations! You’ve got everything you need now… Fair winds to ye salty sea dogs!