Minuteman
Americannoun
-
(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.
-
a U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile with three stages, powered by solid-propellant rocket engines.
-
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
-
(sometimes not capital) (in the War of American Independence) a colonial militiaman who promised to be ready to fight at one minute's notice
-
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
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
The Minuteman missiles are old; they were first deployed in 1970.
From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2025
The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile is set to launch from the Santa Barbara County base sometime between 11:01 p.m.
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 Lee, Andrew
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
Next, Mike Watt, best known as the bassist for Southern California punk band the Minutemen in the early 1980s, plays with his new band, the Mike Watt Quartet ft.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 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
But the engineers also spent time designing strategic rockets under defense contracts, something perhaps less politically correct to advertise: Trident missiles, ICBMs, Minutemen.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
