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:
Nat, a former Navy SEAL, launched Minuteman Plumbing, Heating & Cooling with a master plumber he met through a Harvard mentor between graduation and starting his job at a consulting firm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
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
And while the Minuteman missiles were unique in having the power and accuracy to destroy the enemy’s blast-hardened missile silos, the submarines’ Trident II missiles, which were first deployed in 1990, have the same capability.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 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
The work was published by the son of Isaiah Thomas, who is known both as the father of American printing, and as a Minuteman at Lexington and Concord in the War of Independence.
From Sermons on Various Important Subjects by Andrew Lee
This year’s lineup on the stage includes Minutemen bassist Mike Watt, Jason DeVore of Authority Zero and a special set from Lindberg himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
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
“Our first time in the studio with him was for our first Minutemen record, ‘Paranoid Time,’ a seven-song, seven-inch EP, in July of 1980,” Mike Watt, the band’s bassist and co-founder, recalled in an email.
From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 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.
