soldier

American  

[sohl-jer] / ˈsoʊl dʒər /

noun

1. a person who serves in an army; a person engaged in military service.

2. an enlisted person, 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.

8. Informal. a person who avoids work or pretends to work; loafer; malingerer.

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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 phrase

1. soldier on to persist steadfastly in one's work; persevere.

   to soldier on until the work is done.

soldier British  

/ ˈsəʊldʒə /

noun

1. 1. a person who serves or has served in an army

   2. Also called: common soldier.  a 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

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verb

1. to serve as a soldier

2. obsolete to malinger or shirk

Other Word Forms

• nonsoldier noun
• soldiership noun

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; sol ² ) + -ier -ier ²

Example Sentences

With hundreds of thousands of soldiers coming back from the front wounded, Russia's prosthetics workshops -- like the one outside Saint Petersburg where AFP met Dmitry -- have been filling up with ex-fighters.

From Barron's

"Our soldiers are defending our future, but may lose their own, so we wanted to give them that chance," is how MP Oksana Dmitrieva describes the law she helped draft.

From BBC

The way Kilgore at first proudly offers his canteen to, but then thoughtlessly withdraws it from, an enemy soldier who is about to die is priceless, and reportedly based on a real incident.

From The Wall Street Journal

It is thought he took soldiers and animals from Carthage through Spain and France to invade Italy, crossing the Alps with 37 elephants in 218 BCE during the second of the so-called Punic Wars.

From BBC

The service has spent more than $10 million over the past three years on balloons, and has required that soldiers begin using them.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• commando
• fighter
• guard
• guerrilla
• marine
• mercenary
• officer
• paratrooper
• pilot
• trooper
• veteran
• volunteer