collar n Cp DARE ~ v phr get in the collar 'to start working' (1967-) for sense 3.
   1 1986 FELTHAM 69 The schooners and bullies that were moored in safe harbours for the winter and allowed to freeze in can now be taken to their summer moorings. The 'collars' removed from the water during the late fall now have to be set out again. 1987 KING (ed) 32 "Grandmother Figure 1": She cried without quakes,/without sobs, looking out past orange-lichened rocks/and trap-skiffs restless as boys in chafing hemp collars/on a blue sea.
   2 1986 SAUNDERS 277 A bulley boat...drew too much water to tie up at the wharf [so] they would take the lumber out in a scow to where she was moored off on her collar in midstream.
   3 Phr get off the collar: to conclude a period of shore work preparatory to actual fishing.
   1981 SPARKES 183 The coming of spring was the time to 'go in collar again'. Fishing crews were now to be shipped (signed on) for the work of setting up the great bark-pots, painting boats, setting in order the trawls, nets and cod-traps and repairing flakes. 1987 Evening Telegram 4 July, p. 56 [tape transcript] In the fall the men would have to go out no matter how bad the weather was; they had to get off the collar, get clear of the stagehead and go somewhere [on the water to fish].
   4 Attrib ~ time.
   1986 FELTHAM 69 May was 'collar' time for the crews of the many schooners engaged in the Labrador fishery.

Go Back