dead soldier

American  

noun

Slang.

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

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dead soldier British  

noun

1. informal an empty beer or spirit bottle

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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.

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Etymology

Origin of dead soldier

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

Jibo is a bit of a dead soldier whose commanding officers went out of business.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 22, 2023

The Ukrainian military’s general staff gave the same name for the dead soldier, saying it was “according to preliminary information.”

From Seattle Times • Mar. 7, 2023

"History will certainly preserve the names of those who tried to keep silent about the trouble, and those who tried to blame the dead soldier for everything," he wrote on Telegram.

From BBC • Jan. 3, 2023

One is titled “On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing Ship, 1492”; others are about a dead soldier, a basketball player surrounded by disadvantages, a man imprisoned.

From New York Times • Oct. 20, 2021

She thought it was better to have a live lover, even though he were a hundred miles away, than a dead soldier.

From The Web of the Golden Spider by Fisher, Harrison

Related Words

• glass
• jar
• jug
• urn
• vial