Minuteman
Americannoun
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Minutemen
plural
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(sometimes lowercase) a member of a group of American militiamen just before and during the Revolutionary War who held themselves in readiness for instant military service.
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a U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile with three stages, powered by solid-propellant rocket engines.
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a member of a small, secret, ultraconservative organization formed into armed groups for the declared purpose of conducting guerrilla warfare against a communist invasion of the U.S.
noun
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(sometimes not capital) (in the War of American Independence) a colonial militiaman who promised to be ready to fight at one minute's notice
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a US three-stage intercontinental ballistic missile
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Minuteman
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Caroline, who spent her last year at Harvard Business School taking classes on buying and operating small businesses, took over running Minuteman after Nat’s job started.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Ed Bouquillon noticed more students from affluent families at Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School in upscale Lexington as parents’ attitudes shifted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
And now it turns out, the Air Force, which has been running the program, says the Minuteman can be tweaked to last until 2050—for another quarter-century.
From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2025
Until full capability of the Sentinel missiles is achieved in the mid-2030s, the Air Force says it is committed to ensuring Minuteman III remains a viable deterrent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2025
We will reduce the number of warheads on Minuteman missiles to one and reduce the number of warheads on our sea-based missiles by about one-third.
From State of the Union Address by George Bush
Rat was doing sound at the club Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach in the mid-1980s when the Minutemen were onstage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2024
The Minutemen are 50 years old, and while they’ve been modified many times, they will probably need to be mothballed someday.
From Slate ● Feb. 2, 2024
In 1981 the band made its way to Hermosa Beach to record its 11-song self-titled debut in the same studio where Black Flag, the Minutemen and Saccharine Trust recorded early material for the label.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2023
Minutemen III silo fields are based at Malmstrom, F.E.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 7, 2023
Around fifty of the Minutemen and lots of British troops had been killed on Friday at Lexington or Concord, or wherever it was, although nobody seemed to know how many for sure.
From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
