soldier
Americannoun
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soldiers
plural
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a person who serves in an army; a person engaged in military service.
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an enlisted person, as distinguished from a commissioned officer.
the soldiers' mess and the officers' mess.
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a person of military skill or experience.
George Washington was a great soldier.
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a person who contends or serves in any cause.
a soldier of the Lord.
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Also called button man. Slang. a low-ranking member of a crime organization or syndicate.
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Entomology.
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a member of a caste of sexually underdeveloped female ants or termites specialized, as with powerful jaws, to defend the colony from invaders.
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a similar member of a caste of worker bees, specialized to protect the hive.
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a brick laid vertically with the narrower long face out.
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Informal. a person who avoids work or pretends to work; loafer; malingerer.
verb (used without object)
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soldiers,
present (3rd person singular)
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soldiered,
past participle, past
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soldiering
present participle
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to act or serve as a soldier.
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Informal. to loaf while pretending to work; malinger.
He was soldiering on the job.
verb phrase
noun
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a person who serves or has served in an army
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Also called: common soldier. a noncommissioned member of an army as opposed to a commissioned officer
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a person who works diligently for a cause
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a low-ranking member of the Mafia or other organized crime ring
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zoology
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an individual in a colony of social insects, esp ants, that has powerful jaws adapted for defending the colony, crushing large food particles, etc
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( as modifier )
soldier ant
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informal a strip of bread or toast that is dipped into a soft-boiled egg
verb
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to serve as a soldier
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obsolete to malinger or shirk
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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soldiersimple
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soldierssimple
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have soldieredperfect
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has soldieredperfect
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am soldieringprogressive
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are soldieringprogressive
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is soldieringprogressive
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have been soldieringperfect progressive
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has been soldieringperfect progressive
Past
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soldieredsimple
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had soldieredperfect
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was soldieringprogressive
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were soldieringprogressive
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had been soldieringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of soldier
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English souldiour, from Old French soudier, so(i)dier, equivalent to soulde “pay” (from Latin solidus; see sol 2) + -ier -ier 2
Explanation
In a war, soldiers are the people who do the fighting, on the ground, in planes, or from boats. Soldier is also a verb that means to serve in the military, or to continue on through difficult times. What is an army without soldiers? It’s a bunch of guns on the ground. A soldier is the man or woman who fights for their government and carries the weapons, risking their life in the process. The word comes from the Latin solidus, which is the name of the gold coin used to pay soldiers who fought in the Roman army. To “soldier on” means to not give up even when life is tough, like soldiering on through difficult vocabulary.
Vocabulary lists containing soldier
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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:
As for Holbrook, he portrays a painfully ordinary U.S. soldier — the kind who impetuously signed up in response to 9/11 — while pushing against reductive stereotypes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
To do it, Hansen forges forward with all the ardent conviction of an American soldier, clinging to the belief that his definition of good is the greater good, too.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
"We feel it," says Olga, whose son-in-law is a soldier in the "special operation".
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Another soldier stands behind him, his back to the camera, his rifle slanting across the upper lefthand section of the picture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
“Any returning soldier with half a functioning brain could figure it out, I’m sure.”
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
The technology emerged from research focused on making military uniforms more resistant to mosquito bites and improving comfort for soldiers wearing body armor.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
If the North punishes the POWs' families and word spreads, it "could provoke unrest among the families of other soldiers", he said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
"This is similar to what the military do in the trenches. Ordinary people are fighting to keep the factory alive like soldiers."
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
Before long, soldiers and police moved the family to a vehicle outside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
By June 30, more than 850,000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen, 148,000 vehicles, and 570,000 tons of supplies arrive in France.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
“Even during the depths of Covid, those Hot Pockets soldiered on.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
But I gamely soldiered back into the sunlight and onto the pathways that line the National Mall, each ginger step kicking up dust.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
Meanwhile, the artificial-intelligence boom soldiered on, with strong performance spreading well beyond members of the “Magnificent Seven.”
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 31, 2025
Yet the Pike soldiered on — rather, sailored on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 2025
The archaeological record shows that southern Yucatan was abandoned, while Maya cities in the northern part of the peninsula soldiered on or even grew.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
A lot of front-line soldiering has to do with individual will and attitude, not body chemistry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
That is not the case in the United States anymore, but our financial markets had been soldiering on anyway.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2025
With talent up and down the roster, the No. 7 Trojans have proven themselves capable of soldiering on without their star at her best.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2025
It suits her gift of soldiering through awkward situations with unflappable deadpan.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2024
We plodded down the narrow band, the trees soldiering up around us, dark and tall.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
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.
