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definitions

soldier

[sohl-jer]
See more synonyms for soldier on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person who serves in an army; a person engaged in military service.
  2. an enlisted man or woman, as distinguished from a commissioned officer: the soldiers' mess and the officers' mess.
  3. a person of military skill or experience: George Washington was a great soldier.
  4. a person who contends or serves in any cause: a soldier of the Lord.
  5. Also called button man. Slang. a low-ranking member of a crime organization or syndicate.
  6. Entomology.
    1. a member of a caste of sexually underdeveloped female ants or termites specialized, as with powerful jaws, to defend the colony from invaders.
    2. a similar member of a caste of worker bees, specialized to protect the hive.
  7. a brick laid vertically with the narrower long face out.Compare rowlock(def 2).
  8. Informal. a person who avoids work or pretends to work; loafer; malingerer.
verb (used without object)
  1. to act or serve as a soldier.
  2. Informal. to loaf while pretending to work; malinger: He was soldiering on the job.
Verb Phrases
  1. soldier on, to persist steadfastly in one's work; persevere: to soldier on until the work is done.

Origin of soldier

1250–1300; Middle English souldiour < Old French soudier, so(l)dier, equivalent to soulde pay (< Latin solidus; see sol2) + -ier -ier2
Related formssol·dier·ship, nounnon·sol·dier, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for soldier

fighter, mercenary, guerrilla, veteran, guard, officer, volunteer, marine, pilot, paratrooper, trooper, commando, warrior, cadet, infantry, recruit, private, gunner, scout, rank

Examples from the Web for soldier

Contemporary Examples of soldier

Historical Examples of soldier

  • "Up the Main Street, and across the drawbridge," said the soldier, goodnaturedly.

  • "Then you may bid farewell to your bed, soldier," said Hordle John.

    The White Company

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • But here are three strangers, and one, as I take it, a soldier fresh from service.

    The White Company

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • I am proud of you, Sidney; you came through it like a soldier.

    K

    Mary Roberts Rinehart

  • There is a Telling of that passing and of that soldier which has to do with the gold that was never found.

    The Trail Book

    Mary Austin

British Dictionary definitions for soldier

soldier

noun
    1. a person who serves or has served in an army
    2. Also called: common soldiera noncommissioned member of an army as opposed to a commissioned officer
  2. a person who works diligently for a cause
  3. a low-ranking member of the Mafia or other organized crime ring
  4. zoology
    1. an individual in a colony of social insects, esp ants, that has powerful jaws adapted for defending the colony, crushing large food particles, etc
    2. (as modifier)soldier ant
  5. informal a strip of bread or toast that is dipped into a soft-boiled egg
verb (intr)
  1. to serve as a soldier
  2. obsolete, slang to malinger or shirk

Word Origin for soldier

C13: from Old French soudier, from soude (army) pay, from Late Latin solidus a gold coin, from Latin: firm
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for soldier
n.

c.1300, souder, from Old French soudier, soldier "one who serves in the army for pay," from Medieval Latin soldarius "a soldier" (cf. Spanish soldado, Italian soldato and French soldat "soldier," which is borrowed from Italian), literally "one having pay," from Late Latin soldum, extended sense of accusative of Latin solidus, name of a Roman gold coin (see solidus). The -l- has been regular in English since mid-14c., in imitation of Latin. Willie and Joe always say sojer in the Bill Mauldin cartoons, and this seems to mirror 16c.-17c. spellings sojar, soger, sojour.

v.

"to serve as a soldier," 1640s, from soldier (n.). Related: Soldiered; soldiering. To soldier on "persist doggedly" is attested from 1954.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper