swallow the anchor
v. phr.— «Where you see yourself in five years: We’ll be back on the boat somewhere. I don’t know where. But I think we’ll keep the house and rent it out; this will always be our home port, our land lock—swallowing the anchor, as they call it in the boat world.» —“People Watching: Meet Christine Currie” by Mandy Major Mercury News (San Jose, California) June 12, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Ashley from Berea, Kentucky, wonders about her father’s use of nords, apparently to mean “in other words.” This is part of a complete episode.
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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...