soldier
UK /ˈsəʊld͡ʒə/ · US /ˈsoʊld͡ʒɚ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms soldiers soldiering soldiered soldior soldiour souldier souldior souldiour sojah soldiuh
- noun (countable, military) A member of a ground-based army, of any rank, but especially an enlisted member. “My friends and I saw a soldier questioning a man holding a bag with a gun in his pocket.”
- noun (by extension, nonstandard, countable, military) Any member of a military, regardless of specialty.
- noun (countable, formal, military) An enlisted member of a military service, as distinguished from a commissioned officer. “She saw a soldier while collecting her baggage at the airport.”
- noun A guardsman.
- noun A member of the Salvation Army.
- noun A low-ranking gangster or member of a gang, especially the mafia, who engages in physical conflict.
- noun (UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) A piece of buttered bread (or toast), cut into a long thin strip for dipping into a soft-boiled egg.
- noun A term of approbation for a young boy.
- verb (intransitive) To continue steadfast; to keep striving.
- verb (intransitive) To serve as a soldier.
- verb (intransitive) To intentionally restrict labor productivity; to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished.
- verb (transitive, slang) To take a ride on (another person's horse) without permission.
- proper noun A tiny city in Monona County, Iowa.
- proper noun A tiny city in Jackson County, Kansas.
- proper noun An unincorporated community and coal town in Carter County, Kentucky.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania.
Synonyms
grunt sweat old sweat Tommy digger dogface doughboy GI ground pounder jarhead jawan lobster Old Bill regular serviceman serviceperson servicewoman squaddie tirailleur Tommy Atkins
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English soudeour, from Old French soudier or soudeour (“mercenary”), from Medieval Latin soldarius (“soldier (one having pay)”), from Late Latin solidus, a type of coin. Displaced Old English cempa (whence obsolete kemp).
(red herring): An allusion to soldiers' red uniforms; red herring is, reciprocally, a slang term for "soldier".
Webster’s 1913
- noun One who is engaged in military service as an officer or a private; one who serves in an army; one of an organized body of combatants.
- noun Especially, a private in military service, as distinguished from an officer.
- verb To serve as a soldier.
- verb To make a pretense of doing something, or of performing any task.
Etymology [OE. souldier, soudiour, souder, OF. soldier, soldoier, soldeier, sodoier, soudoier, soudier, fr. L. solidus a piece of money (hence applied to the pay of a soldier), fr. solidus solid. See Solid, and cf. Sold, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “soldier”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details