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soldier

Pronunciation: /ˈsəʊld͡ʒə/

The English word “soldier” has 18 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A member of a ground-based army, of any rank, but especially an enlisted member.
  2. Any member of a military, regardless of specialty.
  3. An enlisted member of a military service, as distinguished from a commissioned officer.
  4. A guardsman.
  5. A member of the Salvation Army.
  6. A low-ranking gangster or member of a gang, especially the mafia, who engages in physical conflict.
  7. A piece of buttered bread (or toast), cut into a long thin strip for dipping into a soft-boiled egg.
  8. A term of approbation for a young boy.
  9. Someone who fights or toils well.
  10. A red or cuckoo gurnard (Chelidonichthys cuculus).
  11. One of the asexual polymorphic forms of termites, in which the head and jaws are very large and strong. The soldiers serve to defend the nest.
  12. A red herring (cured kipper with flesh turned red).
  13. A xiangqi piece that moves and captures by advancing one point. Once it has crossed the river, it may also move and capture one point horizontally.
  14. A brick, for example in a course of brickwork, that is laid vertically on its shortest end (smallest face), so that its tallest and slimmest face faces the outside of the wall.

verb

  1. To continue steadfast; to keep striving.
  2. To serve as a soldier.
  3. To intentionally restrict labor productivity; to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished.
  4. To take a ride on (another person's horse) without permission.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English soudeour, from Old French soudier or soudeour (“mercenary”), from Medieval Latin soldarius (“soldier (one having pay)”), from Late Latin solidus, a type of coin. Displaced Old English cempa (whence obsolete kemp). (red herring): An allusion to soldiers' red uniforms; red herring is, reciprocally, a slang term for "soldier".

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.