Meanings
plural coners
- USslanggovernmentAn enlisted submariner not employed in the nuclear field.
Coners live in the Cone. That’s any space forward of the engine room. They make up the rest of the crew.
2020 June 16, Aaron Amick, “Nukes, Nubs And Coners: The Unique Social Hierarchy Aboard A Nuclear Submarine”, in TWZ, archived from the original on 29 Jul 20262 more examples
Non-nukes do everything in their power to stay out of the engineroom. I don't blame them, honestly. That's where a lot of the animosity that nukes have for them comes from, though. The Power Plant Casualty alarm is the "Go Back To Sleep" alarm for the vast majority of coners.
2016 March 17, u/nowhereian, r/newtothenavy (Reddit post), archived from the original on 01 Sep 2026Chief of the Boat. Highest ranking Chief onboard. Almost always a coner, but is possible that they are a nuke transplant (highly unlikely). They usually are delusional, and think that everyone onboard is equally important, and that the coners work as hard as the nukes do.
2016 September 24, u/Stephonovich, “USN Job Descriptions”, in r/submarines (Reddit post), archived from the original on 05 Jun 2023
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱeh₃-
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱóh₃nos
- Ancient Greekκῶνος (kônos)
- Medieval Latincōnus
- Middle Englishcone
- Englishcone
- Englishconer
From cone + -er. Sense 2 alludes that nonnuclear-trained submariners spend most of their time at the cone of the ship.
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Rhymes with coner
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Cite this entry
coner. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coner
“coner.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coner. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “coner,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coner.
Source: coner on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.