soldier

[sohl-jer]

noun

1. a person who serves in an army; a person engaged in military service.

2. an enlisted person, as distinguished from a commissioned officer.

   the soldiers' mess and the officers' mess.

3. a person of military skill or experience.

   George Washington was a great soldier.

4. a person who contends or serves in any cause.

   a soldier of the Lord.

5. Also called button man. Slang.,  a low-ranking member of a crime organization or syndicate.

6. Entomology.

   1. a member of a caste of sexually underdeveloped female ants or termites specialized, as with powerful jaws, to defend the colony from invaders.

   2. a similar member of a caste of worker bees, specialized to protect the hive.

7. a brick laid vertically with the narrower long face out.

8. Informal.,  a person who avoids work or pretends to work; loafer; malingerer.

verb (used without object)

1. to act or serve as a soldier.

2. Informal.,  to loaf while pretending to work; malinger.

   He was soldiering on the job.

verb phrase

1. soldier on,  to persist steadfastly in one's work; persevere.

   to soldier on until the work is done.

soldier

/ ˈsəʊldʒə /

noun

1. 1. a person who serves or has served in an army

   2. Also called: common soldier. a noncommissioned member of an army as opposed to a commissioned officer

2. a person who works diligently for a cause

3. a low-ranking member of the Mafia or other organized crime ring

4. zoology

   1. an individual in a colony of social insects, esp ants, that has powerful jaws adapted for defending the colony, crushing large food particles, etc

   2. ( as modifier )

      soldier ant

5. informal,  a strip of bread or toast that is dipped into a soft-boiled egg

verb

1. to serve as a soldier

2. obsolete,  to malinger or shirk

Other Word Forms

• soldiership noun
• nonsoldier noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of soldier¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English souldiour, from Old French soudier, so(i)dier, equivalent to soulde “pay” (from Latin solidus; sol ² ) + -ier -ier ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of soldier¹

C13: from Old French soudier, from soude (army) pay, from Late Latin solidus a gold coin, from Latin: firm

Example Sentences

I could think of only one group of people who could be using the path in an occupied village so close to the front line: Russian soldiers.

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These soldiers, many from East African nations, have been deployed since 2007 with Swahili often their common language.

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“His own biography — born in India, sent to Burma as a young soldier, doing what he did there and being ashamed of it — drew him closer to my own experience,” Peck says.

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Code for the authority to send soldiers on immigration raids and to control crowds of protesters.

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Alexandrovna herself appears in several photos taken with recruits when they first land in Russia; others depict foreign soldiers after they receive their citizenship, smiling to the camera and proudly showing off their passports.

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Related Words

• commando 
• fighter 
• guard 
• guerrilla 
• marine 
• mercenary 
• officer 
• paratrooper 
• pilot 
• trooper 
• veteran 
• volunteer