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marine
Tell it to the marines!
Inf. I do not believe you (maybe the marines will)! Your excuse is preposterous. Tell it to the marines. I don't care how good you think your reason is. Tell it to the marines!
(Go) tell it/that to the marines.
(American) something that you say in order to tell someone that you do not believe what they have just said
Usage notes: A marine is a soldier who works on a ship. Marines were thought to be less likely to believe things that people told them because they had travelled the world and knew a lot.
You were here all day? Sure, you were - tell it to the marines. dead soldier
Also, dead man. An empty liquor, wine, or beer bottle, as in Their trash barrel's full of dead soldiers; they must drink a lot, or That dead man sticking out of your pocket alerted the officer to the fact that you'd been drinking. Dead man has been slang for "empty bottle" since the late 1600s but has been largely replaced by dead soldier, dating from the late 1800s.
tell it to the Marines
Go fool someone else because I won't believe that. For example, He's a millionaire? Tell it to the Marines! This term originated among British sailors, who regarded marines as naive and gullible. [c. 1800]
dead soldier
and dead man and dead marine and dead one1. n. an empty liquor or beer bottle. Toss your dead soldiers in the garbage, please. There’s a dead one under the bed and another in the fireplace!
2. n. a cigarette butt. (Less common than sense 1) The bum found a dead soldier on the ground and picked it up.
dead marine
verbmarine (recruit)
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. marine officer
verbmarine
verbTell it to the marines
A scornful response to an unbelievable story. Beginning in the 17th century, marines were land forces who were stationed on ships of the Royal Navy. As landlubbers, they were understandably naive if not ignorant about life aboard a vessel and on the waves. Sailors took advantage and concocted outlandish stories that the marines swallowed hook, line, and sinker. Accordingly, any outlandish story heard on land or sea and recognized as bilge was greeted with the full rejoinder, “You may tell that to the marines, but the sailors will not believe it,” subsequently shortened over generations to “Aw, tell it to the marines!”