canteen cowboy

plural canteen cowboys

1. slangaeronauticsAn aviator who spends his time flirting with or picking up girls at the canteen.

   To my shame, I've been as guilty of macho bollocks in this regard as the dustiest canteen cowboy.

   1998, Robert Newman, Manners, page 71

   3 more examples

   On the basis that if you cannot beat them, join them, some, like Private 'Umbriago' Hillier, who was later to prove his guts and character, emulated all the traits of the seasoned veteran. He earned the reputation of being 'a canteen cowboy' and a 'tailboard Romeo', always chatting up the girls at the NAAFI canteen and ogling and whistling at girls from the back of the Company transport.

   1979, Ron Kent, First In!: Parachute Pathfinder Company, page 79

   No stiff upper lips, no coal-scuttle jaws, in fact none of the cliches. What the Boultings earlier Desert Victory did for the front line here, this film does for the canteen cowboy and the Whitehall warrior.

   1984, Geoff Hurd, National fictions: World War Two in British films and television, page 40

   For one thing, he wanted to see if anyone was following Ricketts. The Cockney had been thrown out of SAS because he was a loner and a canteen cowboy.

   1985, J. C. Winters, Berlin Fugle, page 307