soldier
Americannoun
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soldiers
plural
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a person who serves in an army; a person engaged in military service.
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an enlisted person, as distinguished from a commissioned officer.
the soldiers' mess and the officers' mess.
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a person of military skill or experience.
George Washington was a great soldier.
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a person who contends or serves in any cause.
a soldier of the Lord.
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Also called button man. Slang. a low-ranking member of a crime organization or syndicate.
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Entomology.
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a member of a caste of sexually underdeveloped female ants or termites specialized, as with powerful jaws, to defend the colony from invaders.
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a similar member of a caste of worker bees, specialized to protect the hive.
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a brick laid vertically with the narrower long face out.
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Informal. a person who avoids work or pretends to work; loafer; malingerer.
verb (used without object)
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soldiers,
present (3rd person singular)
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soldiered,
past participle, past
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soldiering
present participle
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to act or serve as a soldier.
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Informal. to loaf while pretending to work; malinger.
He was soldiering on the job.
verb phrase
noun
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a person who serves or has served in an army
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Also called: common soldier. a noncommissioned member of an army as opposed to a commissioned officer
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a person who works diligently for a cause
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a low-ranking member of the Mafia or other organized crime ring
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zoology
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an individual in a colony of social insects, esp ants, that has powerful jaws adapted for defending the colony, crushing large food particles, etc
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( as modifier )
soldier ant
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informal a strip of bread or toast that is dipped into a soft-boiled egg
verb
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to serve as a soldier
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obsolete to malinger or shirk
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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soldiersimple
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soldierssimple
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have soldieredperfect
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has soldieredperfect
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am soldieringprogressive
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are soldieringprogressive
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is soldieringprogressive
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have been soldieringperfect progressive
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has been soldieringperfect progressive
Past
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soldieredsimple
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had soldieredperfect
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was soldieringprogressive
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were soldieringprogressive
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had been soldieringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of soldier
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English souldiour, from Old French soudier, so(i)dier, equivalent to soulde “pay” (from Latin solidus; see sol 2) + -ier -ier 2
Explanation
In a war, soldiers are the people who do the fighting, on the ground, in planes, or from boats. Soldier is also a verb that means to serve in the military, or to continue on through difficult times. What is an army without soldiers? It’s a bunch of guns on the ground. A soldier is the man or woman who fights for their government and carries the weapons, risking their life in the process. The word comes from the Latin solidus, which is the name of the gold coin used to pay soldiers who fought in the Roman army. To “soldier on” means to not give up even when life is tough, like soldiering on through difficult vocabulary.
Vocabulary lists containing soldier
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"We feel it," says Olga, whose son-in-law is a soldier in the "special operation".
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Another soldier stands behind him, his back to the camera, his rifle slanting across the upper lefthand section of the picture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Kojima, whose pioneering "Metal Gear" spy soldier franchise was a key element of the PlayStation's success since the 1990s, has been working on a new project, "Physint".
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
We drove past an undeveloped beach—no facilities, just a handful of people taking a dip—and up to a viewpoint where there was a military outpost containing one soldier and his dog.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
The soldier inspected it closely, first looking at the photograph on Hugo’s card, then at his face.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
"It is vital that soldiers can perform to a very high level because if it goes wrong, it could mean loss of life."
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
During the 1710 siege of Tallinn, for example, the disease killed Swedish and Russian soldiers as well as civilians.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
North Korea hasn’t said how many of the estimated 15,000 troops sent to Russia have returned, but in March, Kim opened a memorial to fallen North Korean soldiers in Pyongyang with hundreds of graves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
About a third of this will go towards wages for soldiers, while the remainder will largely go towards weapons and equipment, the release said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
One day as Father and I were returning from our walk we found the Grote Markt cordoned off by a double ring of police and soldiers.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
“Even during the depths of Covid, those Hot Pockets soldiered on.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
But I gamely soldiered back into the sunlight and onto the pathways that line the National Mall, each ginger step kicking up dust.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
Meanwhile, the artificial-intelligence boom soldiered on, with strong performance spreading well beyond members of the “Magnificent Seven.”
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 31, 2025
During the more recent crises, students and staff have largely soldiered through with better outcomes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2025
I soldiered on, breathing through my pulled-up shirt and keeping away from the walls and any other ghastly surprises they might’ve harbored.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
In the two months since the Strait of Hormuz was closed, many of the world’s major economies have been soldiering on.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
That is not the case in the United States anymore, but our financial markets had been soldiering on anyway.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2025
Dismissed for 149 or soldiering on for another milestone next year?
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2024
“She really taught us how to be strong,” Douglas said, “to hang in there and keep soldiering on to keep trying to see the good.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2024
He turned back with a handsome crested helmet in one hand, in the other an old shield coated with dust—a shield Laertes bore soldiering in his youth.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
