dead soldier

American  

noun

Slang.

1. an empty beer, liquor, or wine bottle or empty beer can.

---

dead soldier British  

noun

1. informal an empty beer or spirit bottle

---

dead soldier Idioms  

1. Also, dead man. An empty liquor, wine, or beer bottle, as in Their trash barrel's full of dead soldiers; they must drink a lot, or That dead man sticking out of your pocket alerted the officer to the fact that you'd been drinking. Dead man has been slang for “empty bottle” since the late 1600s but has been largely replaced by dead soldier, dating from the late 1800s.

---

Etymology

Origin of dead soldier

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

Each was to have loomed behind an act of The Brave Soldier Schweyk, a savagely pacifist drama by E. E. Kisch, from the novel by the late Czechoslovak writer Jaroslav Hasek.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

• glass
• jar
• jug
• urn
• vial