sailor’s wife
n.— «Like honey and the bee, prostitutes are usually not far from seaports: It is not for nothing these women of easy virtue are also known as “Sailors’ wives.”» —“Still anchored at Apapa” by Maurice Archibong Daily Sun (Lagos, Nigeria) Aug. 24, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A Navy vet recalls learning the slang term gundeck, meaning “to sign off on checks or reports without fully completing them.” A possible origin involves a ship’s gun deck, either as a place where sailors hid to avoid duties or where navigational...
Mark in Bismarck, North Dakota, spent years as a sailor, and wonders about the term sea painter, meaning “a rope attached to a lifeboat.” Why painter? The word may derive from Middle French pendeur meaning “a kind of rope that...