sailor

To have a tendency or proclivity to use coarse, rude, or vulgar language. I don't know what you're letting your son watch on television, but, for a fifth grader, he sure has the mouth of a sailor! My grandmother is the sweetest old lady you'll ever know, but, my lord, does she have the mouth of a sailor!

To spend excessively, extravagantly, or wastefully. Now don't go spending like a sailor on shore leave just because you got a bit of a tax refund from the government. The local council has been spending like sailors on this new tram project, while other existing public transport goes into disrepair. Every time my husband's paycheck comes through, he goes out to the pubs and spends like a sailor on leave!

To use profanities or vulgar language very freely and fluently. (An allusion to the rough language presumed to be used by military personnel.) My little sister has been swearing like a sailor ever since she started learning bad words. My granny is the sweetest old lady you'll ever meet, but she swears like a sailor when she gets on the topic of something or someone she doesn't like.

A tendency or proclivity to use coarse, rude, or vulgar language. I don't know what you're letting your son watch on television, but, for a fifth grader, he sure has the mouth of a sailor! My grandmother is the sweetest old lady you'll ever know, but, my lord, does she have the mouth of a sailor!

To spend money freely and frivolously. Because I've been spending money like a drunken sailor, I don't have enough to pay my rent this month.

With no restraint. A merchant seaman on shore leave with months' worth of pay in his pocket tended to make up for lost time in the drinking and “play-for-pay romance” departments. Fiscal restraint was out of the question. So did miners and cowboys when they too had a chance to go to town, but the image of a sailor prevailed. The sea shanty “What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?” suggests the same idea of a jocular attitude toward an inebriated mariner.