Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Soldier?

\Sol"dier\, n. [OE. souldier, soudiour, souder, OF. soldier, soldoier, soldeier, sodoier, soudoier, soudier, fr. L. solidus a piece of money (hence applied to the pay of a soldier), fr. solidus solid. See {Solid}, and cf. {Sold}, n.] 1. One who is engaged in military service as an officer or a private; one who serves in an army; one of an organized body of combatants. I am a soldier and unapt to weep. --Shak. 2. Especially, a private in military service, as distinguished from an officer. It were meet that any one, before he came to be a captain, should have been a soldier. --Spenser. 3. A brave warrior; a man of military experience and skill, or a man of distinguished valor; -- used by way of emphasis or distinction. --Shak. 4. (Zo["o]l.) The red or cuckoo gurnard ({Trigla pini}.) [Prov. Eng.] 5. (Zo["o]l.) One of the asexual polymorphic forms of white ants, or termites, in which the head and jaws are very large and strong. The soldiers serve to defend the nest. See {Termite}. {Soldier beetle} (Zo["o]l.), an American carabid beetle ({Chauliognathus Americanus}) whose larva feeds upon other insects, such as the plum curculio. {Soldier bug} (Zo["o]l.), any hemipterous insect of the genus {Podisus} and allied genera, as the spined soldier bug ({Podius spinosus}). These bugs suck the blood of other insects. {Soldier crab} (Zo["o]l.) (a) The hermit crab. (b) The fiddler crab. {Soldier fish} (Zo["o]l.), a bright-colored etheostomoid fish ({Etheostoma c[oe]ruleum}) found in the Mississippi River; -- called also {blue darter}, and {rainbow darter}. {Soldier fly} (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of small dipterous flies of the genus {Stratyomys} and allied genera. They are often bright green, with a metallic luster, and are ornamented on the sides of the back with markings of yellow, like epaulets or shoulder straps. {Soldier moth} (Zo["o]l.), a large geometrid moth ({Euschema militaris}), having the wings bright yellow with bluish black lines and spots. {Soldier orchis} (Bot.), a kind of orchis ({Orchis militaris}).
\Sol"dier\, v. i. 1. To serve as a soldier. 2. To make a pretense of doing something, or of performing any task. [Colloq.U.S.] Note: In this sense the vulgar pronounciation (s[=o]"j[~e]r) is jocosely preserved. It needs an opera glass to discover whether the leaders are pulling, or only soldiering. --C. D. Warner.