soldier

[sohl-jer] /ˈsoʊl dʒər/
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)
9.
to act or serve as a soldier.
10.
Informal. to loaf while pretending to work; malinger:
He was soldiering on the job.
Verb phrases
11.
soldier on, to persist steadfastly in one's work; persevere:
to soldier on until the work is done.
Origin
1250-1300; Middle English souldiour < Old French soudier, so(l)dier, equivalent to soulde pay (< Latin solidus; see sol2) + -ier -ier2
Related forms
soldiership, noun
nonsoldier, noun
Examples from the web for soldier
  • With the introduction of the bayonet, each soldier could be both pikeman and musketeer.
  • There's the shopworn military cliche about every soldier being a sensor.
  • They used the captured scientist and soldier avatars as hostages when the military approached.
  • Neither side had a soldier killed by enemy fire despite all the shot and shell filling the air.
  • However the meter could be recharged and used again with the next soldier.
  • Sensor-studded clothing worn by a soldier tracks his movements and vital signs.
  • Smartphones can also give a soldier more real-time data about battlefields.
  • Resulting in straightening followed either by sit-all-day slouching or the rigidity of a tin soldier.
  • Meanwhile a couple dozen of her soldier ants locked their fish-hook mandibles into my face.
  • With proper conditioning a subject could be turned into an enthusiastic soldier or a loyal customer.
British Dictionary definitions for soldier

soldier

/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
verb (intransitive)
6.
to serve as a soldier
7.
(obsolete, slang) to malinger or shirk
Word Origin
C13: from Old French soudier, from soude (army) pay, from Late Latin solidus a gold coin, from Latin: firm
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.

Slang definitions & phrases for soldier

soldier

noun
  1. dead soldier (1917+)
  2. A low-ranking member of the Mafia; an ordinary thug or gangster (1963+ Underworld)
verb

To avoid work; idle; shirk; fuck the dog, goldbrick: He soldiered on the job and the place was deserted (1840+ Nautical)

Related Terms

first man, sunday soldier