Crimean War

American  

noun

1. a war between Great Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia on one side, and Russia on the other, fought chiefly in the Crimea 1853–56.

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Crimean War British  

noun

1. the war fought mainly in the Crimea between Russia on one side and Turkey, France, Sardinia, and Britain on the other (1853-56)

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Crimean War Cultural  

1. A war fought in the middle of the nineteenth century between Russia on one side and Turkey, Britain, and France on the other. Russia was defeated, and the independence of Turkey was guaranteed.

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Florence Nightingale came to prominence through her nursing service during the Crimean War. The poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, describes a battle in that war.

Example Sentences

Russia, economically weakened after losing the Crimean War, sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867 for just $7.2 million.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 24, 2026

Magnets were used for removing metal from wounds as far back as the Crimean War in the 1850s.

From BBC • Jul. 1, 2025

Similar reforms were also underway in hospitals thanks, in part, to the crusading work of Florence Nightingale, the British nurse who was stationed at a filthy military hospital during the Crimean War in 1854.

From New York Times • Jun. 17, 2023

There was a tradition among British soldiers during the Crimean War in the mid-1800s to create quilts as a way to pass the time while awaiting orders or recovering from injuries.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 26, 2023

Even as late as the time of the Crimean War guns, even the largest, were made of that extremely common material, cast-iron.

From Marvels of Scientific Invention An Interesting Account in Non-technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and many other recent Discoveries of Science by Corbin, Thomas W.