船老大

coxswain / steersman / boatswain (bo'sun)

variant of 船[chuan2]

boat / vessel / ship / CL:條|条[tiao2],艘[sou1],隻|只[zhi1]

prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity / old (of people) / venerable (person) / experienced / of long standing / always / all the time / of the past / very / outdated / (of meat etc) tough

old age / very / eldest child in a family / leader of a group / boss / captain of a boat / leader of a criminal gang

see 大夫[dai4 fu5]

big; large; great / older (than another person) / eldest (as in 大姐[da4 jie3]) / greatly; freely; fully / (dialect) father / (dialect) uncle (father's brother)