Soldier
Pronunciation
- enPR: sÅl'jÉ™(r), IPA: /ˈsəʊldÊ’É™(ɹ)/
- Rhymes: -əʊldʒə(ɹ)
- enPR: sÅl'jÉ™(r), IPA: /ˈsÉ’ldÊ’É™(ɹ)/
- Rhymes: -ɒldʒə(ɹ)
Alternative forms
Origin
From Middle English soudeour, from Anglo-Norman soudeer or soudeour 'mercenary', from Medieval Latin soldarius 'soldier (one having pay)', from Late Latin solidus, a type of coin.
Full definition of soldier
Noun
soldier
(plural soldiers)- A member of an army, of any rank.
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616)I am a soldier and unapt to weep.
- 1910, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price Chapter 1, Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.
- 2012, August 1. Owen Gibson in Guardian Unlimited, London 2012: rowers Glover and Stanning win Team GB's first gold medalStanning, who was commissioned from Sandhurst in 2008 and has served in Aghanistan, is not the first solider to bail out the organisers at these Games but will be among the most celebrated.
- A private in military service, as distinguished from an officer.
- Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)It were meet that any one, before he came to be a captain, should have been a soldier.
- A guardsman.
- A member of the Salvation Army.
- (British, New Zealand) A piece of buttered bread (or toast), cut into a long thin strip and dipped into a soft-boiled egg.
- A term of affection for a young boy.
- Someone who fights or toils well.
- The red or cuckoo gurnard (Trigla pini).
- One of the asexual polymorphic forms of white ants, or termites, in which the head and jaws are very large and strong. The soldiers serve to defend the nest.
Verb
- To continue.
- To be a soldier.
- To intentionally restrict labor productivity; to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished. Has also been called dogging it or goldbricking. (Originally from the way that conscripts may approach following orders. Usage less prevalent in the era of all-volunteer militaries.)