kiss the gunner's daughter

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

kiss the gunner's daughter (third-person singular simple present kisses the gunner's daughter, present participle kissing the gunner's daughter, simple past and past participle kissed the gunner's daughter)

1. (archaic, idiomatic, naval) To be flogged or beaten while restrained over a cannon.
   • 1824, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 14, in Redgauntlet:

     But I was punished, my lad—made to kiss the wench that never speaks but when she scolds, and that's the gunner's daughter, comrade.

   • 2002, Wallace Bruce, John Paul Jones: Father of the United States Navy, →ISBN, page 81:

     "No," replied Bosun Thorpe, "for any breaches of discipline by boy seamen are dealt within by making him, in naval jargon, ‘kiss the gunner's daughter’. . . . he bends over one of the guns; then he is lashed across the backside."

Synonyms

• marry the gunner's daughter