militia
[mi-lish-uh]
- a body of citizens enrolled for military service, and called out periodically for drill but serving full time only in emergencies.
- a body of citizen soldiers as distinguished from professional soldiers.
- all able-bodied males considered by law eligible for military service.
- a body of citizens organized in a paramilitary group and typically regarding themselves as defenders of individual rights against the presumed interference of the federal government.
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Origin of militia
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for militia
Contemporary Examples
Spending millions on speech is more like raising your own militia.
Islamist brigades including Suqur al-Sham, a 9,000-strong militia, are openly breaking with Western-favored rebel factions.
From the militia perspective, the Shia factions in Iraq break down as follows.
But there is a middle way from clean-cut hunkdom to looking like a militia leader who might boil a hitchhiker alive.
“They are army, not militia,” the sheik repeated throughout our conversation.
Historical Examples
I beg you will encourage the militia and engage them to continue their exertions.
A Sketch of the Life of Brig. Gen. Francis MarionWilliam Dobein James
We now marched through a settled country, with some militia for our guards.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
From north and east and west the militia of the counties was on its march against us.
Micah ClarkeArthur Conan Doyle
I thought ye might belong to Portman's yellow regiment of militia.
Micah ClarkeArthur Conan Doyle
They censured the mayor for his weakness and called for the militia.
The HarborErnest Poole
militia
- a body of citizen (as opposed to professional) soldiers
- an organization containing men enlisted for service in emergency only
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin: soldiery, from mīles soldier
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for militia
n.
1580s, "system of military discipline," from Latin militia "military service, warfare," from miles "soldier" (see military). Sense of "citizen army" (as distinct from professional soldiers) is first recorded 1690s, perhaps from a sense in French cognate milice. In U.S. history, "the whole body of men declared by law amenable to military service, without enlistment, whether armed and drilled or not" (1777).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper