noun: (military, nautical) A fast warship with thicker armor and heavier guns than a typical cruiser, but with armor, armament, or both still inferior to that of a dreadnought battleship; designed to act as an advanced scout of the battle fleet and to destroy enemy cruisers.
noun: (fiction) A warship of intermediate size and/or capability between a heavy cruiser and a (light) battleship.
noun: (Cockney rhyming slang) A boozer; a public house.