Library / English Dictionary

SOLDIER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A wingless sterile ant or termite having a large head and powerful jaws adapted for defending the colony

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("soldier" is a kind of...):

worker (sterile member of a colony of social insects that forages for food and cares for the larvae)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An enlisted man or woman who serves in an army

Example:

the soldiers stood at attention

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("soldier" is a kind of...):

enlisted person (a serviceman who ranks below a commissioned officer)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "soldier"):

marine (a soldier who serves both on shipboard and on land)

militiaman (a member of the militia; serves only during emergencies)

orderly (a soldier who serves as an attendant to a superior officer)

para; paratrooper (a soldier in the paratroops)

peacekeeper (a member of a military force that is assigned (often with international sanction) to preserve peace in a trouble area)

pistoleer (someone armed with a pistol (especially a soldier so armed))

poilu (a French soldier (especially in World War I))

point man (a soldier who goes ahead of a patrol)

ranker (an enlisted soldier who serves in the ranks of the armed forces)

regular (a soldier in the regular army)

reservist (a member of a military reserve)

rifleman (a soldier whose weapon is a rifle)

Section Eight (a soldier who received a Section Eight discharge as unfit for military service)

tank driver; tanker (a soldier who drives a tank)

territorial (nonprofessional soldier member of a territorial military unit)

Unknown Soldier (an unidentified soldier whose body is honored as a memorial)

Wac (a member of the Women's Army Corps)

Uriah ((Old Testament) the husband of Bathsheba and a soldier who was sent to die in battle so that king David could marry his wife (circa 10th century BC))

Gurkha (a member of the Nepalese force that has been part of the British army for 200 years; known for fierceness in combat)

Anzac (a soldier in the Australian and New Zealand army corps during World War I)

cannon fodder; fodder; fresh fish (soldiers who are regarded as expendable in the face of artillery fire)

cavalryman; trooper (a soldier mounted on horseback)

cavalryman; trooper (a soldier in a motorized army unit)

color bearer; standard-bearer (the soldier who carries the standard of the unit in military parades or in battle)

Confederate soldier (a soldier in the Army of the Confederacy during the American Civil War)

lobsterback; redcoat (British soldier; so-called because of his red coat (especially during the American Revolution))

flanker (a soldier who is a member of a detachment assigned to guard the flanks of a military formation)

man-at-arms (a heavily armed and mounted soldier in medieval times)

legionary; legionnaire (a soldier who is a member of a legion (especially the French Foreign Legion))

jawan ((India) a private soldier or male constable)

Janissary (a Turkish soldier)

goldbrick (a soldier who performs his duties without proper care or effort)

Green Beret (a soldier who is a member of the United States Army Special Forces)

foot soldier; footslogger; infantryman; marcher (fights on foot with small arms)

guardsman (a soldier who is a member of a unit called 'the guard' or 'guards')

Highlander (a soldier in a Scottish regiment from the Highlands)

Instance hyponyms:

Allen; Ethan Allen (a soldier of the American Revolution whose troops helped capture Fort Ticonderoga from the British (1738-1789))

Bayard; Chevalier de Bayard; Pierre de Terrail; Pierre Terrail; Seigneur de Bayard (French soldier said to be fearless and chivalrous (1473-1524))

Borgia; Cesare Borgia (Italian cardinal and military leader; model for Machiavelli's prince (1475-1507))

Cyrano de Bergerac; Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (a French soldier and dramatist remembered chiefly for fighting many duels (often over the size of his nose); was immortalized in 1897 in a play by Edmond Rostand (1619-1655))

Higginson; Thomas Higginson; Thomas Wentworth Storrow Higginson (United States writer and soldier who led the first Black regiment in the Union Army (1823-1911))

Kosciusko; Kosciuszko; Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko; Thaddeus Kosciusko (Polish patriot and soldier who fought with Americans in the American Revolution (1746-1817))

La Fayette; Lafayette; Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier; Marquis de Lafayette (French soldier who served under George Washington in the American Revolution (1757-1834))

Lawrence; Lawrence of Arabia; T. E. Lawrence; Thomas Edward Lawrence (Welsh soldier who from 1916 to 1918 organized the Arab revolt against the Turks; he later wrote an account of his adventures (1888-1935))

Henry Lee; Lee; Lighthorse Harry Lee (soldier of the American Revolution (1756-1818))

Mehemet Ali; Mohammed Ali; Muhammad Ali (Albanian soldier in the service of Turkey who was made viceroy of Egypt and took control away from the Ottoman Empire and established Egypt as a modern state (1769-1849))

Daniel Morgan; Morgan (soldier in the American Revolution who defeated the British in the battle of Cowpens, South Carolina (1736-1802))

Harry Hotspur; Hotspur; Percy; Sir Henry Percy (English soldier killed in a rebellion against Henry IV (1364-1403))

Juan Domingo Peron; Peron (Argentine soldier who became president of Argentina (1895-1974))

Jan Christian Smuts; Smuts (South African statesman and soldier (1870-1950))

Tancred (Norman leader in the First Crusade who played an important role in the capture of Jerusalem (1078-1112))

Derivation:

soldier (serve as a soldier in the military)

soldierly ((of persons) befitting a warrior)

soldiership (skills that are required for the life of soldier)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Serve as a soldier in the military

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "soldier" is one way to...):

pass; spend (use up a period of time in a specific way)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

soldier (an enlisted man or woman who serves in an army)

soldiering (skills that are required for the life of soldier)

soldiery (soldiers collectively)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Elinor sighed over the fancied necessity of this; but to a man and a soldier she presumed not to censure it.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Yes, it's high time he went, for he is ready, and as soon as he is off, I shall turn soldier.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Soldier, statesman, and alchemist—which latter was the highest development of the science-knowledge of his time.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He prizes me as a soldier would a good weapon; and that is all.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I am very little disposed to grant a tenant of Kellynch Hall any extraordinary favour, I assure you, be he sailor or soldier.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As is usual with your sign, you soldiered on no matter how daunting the tasks, taking one day at a time and putting one foot in front of the other.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

On the one hand soldiers, sailors, and statesmen of the quality of Pitt, Nelson, and afterwards Wellington, had been forced to the front by the imminent menace of Buonaparte.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Good Heaven! Brighton, and a whole campful of soldiers, to us, who have been overset already by one poor regiment of militia, and the monthly balls of Meryton!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

All that evening I had felt like the soldier who awaits the signal which will send him on a forlorn hope; hope of victory and fear of repulse alternating in his mind.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)