spark plug

spark plugs (plural)
sparkplug (alternative)
sparking plug (alternative)

thermonuclear weapon
thermonuclear weapon

(military) A rod (for cylindrical secondaries) or sphere (for spherical secondaries) of fissile material at the center of the secondary of a multistage thermonuclear weapon, which undergoes nuclear fission when compressed to supercriticality by the imploding secondary, helping to raise the secondary to the pressures and temperatures necessary to ignite nuclear fusion in the secondary's fusion fuel.


BDU

(US, military) Initialism of battle dress uniform.


task force

task forces (plural)
taskforce (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-task force.wav

The CEO's task force developed a thoroughgoing marketing strategy for the new product line.

(business, government, military) A group of people working towards a particular task, project, or activity, especially assigned in a particular capacity.


tag-team

en-verb

tag-team (third-person singular simple present tag-teams, present participle tag-teaming, simple past and past participle tag-teamed)

tag-teams (present singular third-person)
tag-teaming (participle present)
tag-teamed (participle past)
tag-teamed (past)

We haven't tag-teamed in the ring for quite a while.

2010, Hulk Hogan, My Life Outside the Ring, →ISBN:

I suggested, to no avail, that WWF (nature) should sponsor a fluffy black-and-white wrestler called the Panda, tag-teamed with the Game Warden.

2012, Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles, →ISBN, page 171:

Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling David Shoemaker. He had some success, ... He tag-teamed with Tony Atlas (known variously as "Black Superman" and "Mr. USA") and, later, Andre the Giant, to some success.

2013, David Shoemaker, The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling, →ISBN, page 127:

(professional wrestling) To wrestle as part of a tag team (sense 1).

professional wrestling
professional wrestling


tag team

Probably from tag (“children’s chasing game in which one player (known as ‘it’) attempts to touch another, who then becomes ‘it’; (baseball) instance of touching the baserunner with the ball or the ball in a gloved hand to rule him ‘out’”) + team.

compound

(professional wrestling) A group of wrestlers who work together as a team. Only one is in the ring at any given time, and they change places by "tagging" each other with a gesture like a high five.


piss lily

(South Africa, army slang, vulgar) A funnel in the shape of a lily stuck into the ground and used as a urinal.


bullseye

bullseyes (plural)
bull's-eye (alternative)
bull's eye (alternative)

→ German: Bullauge (calque)

→ Esperanto: bovokulo (calque)

From bull's + eye. May have come from the practice of English archers shooting an arrow through the eye socket of a bull's skull as a test of skill. The connection to philately comes from the shape of the key plate or vignette.

(military, firearms) The centre of a target, inside the inner and magpie.

འབེན་མིག ('ben mig, literally “target-eye”)

(military, by extension) A commonly-known reference point used when indicating the location or direction of something.


entanglement

en-noun

entanglement (countable and uncountable, plural entanglements)

pletka

that which entangles; intricacy; perplexity

That which entangles; an involvement, a complication; an intricacy; a perplexity.

(military) An obstruction placed in front or on the flank of a fortification, to impede an enemy's approach.


M1 (countable and uncountable, plural M1s)

(firearms) A semi-automatic rifle that was the service rifle of the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War.


take the fall

en-verb

take the fall (third-person singular simple present takes the fall, present participle taking the fall, simple past took the fall, past participle taken the fall)

takes the fall (present singular third-person)
taking the fall (participle present)
took the fall (past)
taken the fall (participle past)
take a fall (alternative)

(idiomatic, informal, sports, especially boxing) To willingly lose a match, as in a fixed fight.


WAG

(informal, business or military slang, US) A wild-assed guess; a rough estimate.


SDR

en-noun

SDR (countable and uncountable, plural SDRs)

(espionage) Initialism of surveillance detection route.


skulk

From Middle English sculke, skulke, skulken, of North Germanic origin; compare Danish skulke (“shirk”), Swedish skolka (“play truant”).

"I shall do my duty, Mr. Jackson," replied Newton, "and fear no consequences." / "Indeed! you saw how I settled a skulk just now;—beware of his fate!"

1832, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XVI, in Newton Forster; or, The Merchant Service. […], volume I, London: James Cochrane and Co., […], →OCLC, page 238:

Toward evening there was something to be done on deck, and the carpenter who belonged to the watch was missing. “Where’s that skulk, Chips?” shouted Jermin down the forecastle scuttle.

1847 March 30, Herman Melville, chapter IV, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 32:

If you should ever need help, my son, let this be your rule—‘never ask it from the man who deserted his country in her hour of need.’ The soldier’s child will find no mercy from a skulk, depend on it.

1872, Sallie F. Chapin, chapter 7, in Fitz-Hugh St. Clair, the South Carolina Rebel Boy, Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, page 75:

An exempt, a skulk, or one upon whom rested the faintest suspicion of evading duty or shrinking in the critical hour of impending battle, was the special object of his wrath.

1906, Henry E. Shepherd, Life of Robert Edward Lee, New York: Neale, Part 3, p. 62:

(obsolete, chiefly nautical, military) One who avoids an obligation or responsibility.


picquet

Sometimes, it is true, Gertrude's resistance flagged; but this was only the temporary acquiescence of fatigue, and the battle was renewed with the old spirit on the next occasion, and was all to be fought over again. At breakfast there was generally, as I may say, an affair of picquets, and through the day a dropping fire, sometimes rising to a skirmish; but the social meal of supper was generally the period when, for the most part, these desultory hostilities blazed up into a general action.

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:


picquet

en-verb

picquet (third-person singular simple present picquets, present participle picqueting, simple past and past participle picqueted)

picquets (present singular third-person)
picqueting (participle present)
picqueted (participle past)
picqueted (past)


From German Vergeltungswaffe eins (“retaliation weapon one”).

uder

(military, historical) An early cruise missile, powered by a pulsejet, used by Germany in the Second World War.


coxswain

coxswains (plural)
cockswain (alternative)

From Middle English cokswain; equivalent to cock (“a boat”) + swain (“boy, servant”); hence “the master of a boat”.

compound

Canadian Navy Coxswain (or Capitaine d'Armes) is the senior non-commissioned officer aboard a ship

British Royal Navy Cadets Cadet Coxswain is the highest normal rank which may be achieved.


backheel

(wrestling) A method of tripping or throwing by getting the leg back of the opponent's heel on the outside and pulling forward while pushing his body back.


backheel

en-verb

backheel (third-person singular simple present backheels, present participle backheeling, simple past and past participle backheeled)

backheels (present singular third-person)
backheeling (participle present)
backheeled (participle past)
backheeled (past)

(wrestling) To perform such a trip or throw.


one-two

(boxing) A one-two punch; two punches delivered in rapid succession

une-deux

boxing: two-punches delivered in rapid succession


DPM

en-noun

DPM (countable and uncountable, plural DPMs)

DPMs (plural)
dpm (alternative)
d.p.m. (alternative)
d. p. m. (alternative)

(military) Initialism of disruptive pattern material.


zero-length launching

(military) A technique in which the first motion of the missile or aircraft removes it from the launcher, typically before the missile fuel or aircraft engine is fired.


zero point

zero point (countable and uncountable, plural zero points)

From early restandardization, possibly under influence of established US military terms such as zero hour, of the prior term point zero, which was coined during the Trinity Project, as point + zero, with zero being the code name for the Trinity test location. The original sense was that of ground zero and referred to only latitude and longitude, without regard to altitude, until the latter term's coinage in 1946.

(military) The location of the center of a burst of a nuclear weapon at the instant of detonation. The zero point may be in the air, or on or beneath the surface of land or water, depending upon the type of burst, and it is thus to be distinguished from ground zero.


zone of fire

(military) An area into which a designated ground unit or fire support ship delivers, or is prepared to deliver, fire support. Fire may or may not be observed.


zone of action

(military) A tactical subdivision of a larger area, the responsibility for which is assigned to a tactical unit; generally applied to offensive action.


area of influence

area of influence (plural areas of influence)

(military) A geographical area wherein a commander is directly capable of influencing operations by maneuver or fire support systems normally under the commander’s command or control.


reprobation

reprobation (countable and uncountable, plural reprobations)

/ˌɹɛpɹəˈbeɪʃən/

From French réprobation, or Latin reprobatio.

(military) Disqualification to hold office.


thunderbox

thunderboxes (plural)
thunder-box (alternative)

Probably a calque of German Donnerbüchse (“(archaic) blunderbuss; cannon”) (from Donner (“thunder”) + Büchse (“box; can; rifle”)), or its etymon Dutch donderbus (“blunderbuss”) (from donder (“thunder”) + bus (“box; container; (chiefly historical) type of early modern firearm”)).

nb...

With Illustrations of the Scenes of Remarkable Events, and of Popular Traditions. By Baron J. J. von Gerning. Embellished with Twenty-four Highly Finished and Coloured Engravings, from the Drawings of M. Schuetz; and Accompanied by a Map. Translated from the German by John Black.

101, Strand; and sold by the principal booksellers in the United Kingdom.

In the year 1346, at the battle of Crecy, the engliſh uſed a ſort of cannons, which were then called thunder-boxes.

1800, Gerhard Ulrich Anthony Vieth, “Gunpowder”, in [anonymous], transl., The Pleasing Preceptor; or Familiar Instructions in Natural History and Physics, […], volume I, London: […] [F]or G. G. and J. Robinson, […] by George Woodfall, […], →OCLC, page 58:

[…] I saw Arnoldi at Dettelbach, standing unhurt amongst the lances and swords, which flashed and glittered around him like lightning; the thunder-boxes peppering away all the while as if it snowed lead; and when the pastime (for it was nothing else to him) was over, there he stood leaning on his halbert, coolly shaking out the bullets, which rattled like peas from his breeches and doublet.

1848, H. J. Whitling, “The Old Man and His Guests”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume XXIII, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 203:

(military, obsolete) A blunderbuss; also, a cannon.


walking patient

en-noun

walking patient (plural walking patients)

(military) A patient whose injuries and/or illness are relatively minor, permitting the patient to walk and not require a litter.


wanted cargo

(military) In naval control of shipping, a cargo which is not immediately required by the consignee country, but will be needed later.


war game

war games (plural)
wargame (alternative)
war-game (alternative)

Well, the WOPR [War Operations Planning Response] spends all it's time thinking about World War III. Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, it plays an endless series of war games using all available information on the state of the world. The WOPR has already fought World War III as a game time and time again.

1983, Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes, WarGames, spoken by Paul Richter:

On the other hand, war games in the Weimar era did not first develop into a political instrument when they began to incorporate political entities. Rather, only war games were able to approximate exactly the situation that was to be avoided at all costs.

2012, Philipp Von Hilgers, War Games: A History of War on Paper, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 65:

In a sort of blooper reel, I will go over some of the things that occurred in a few of the wargames but we left out when collating the overall timeline.

2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 29:29 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 2022-08-04:

en:war simulation for military readiness purposes

(military) A simulation (by whatever means, physical or digital), for training and strategy purposes, of a military operation involving two or more opposing forces using rules, data, and procedures designed to depict an actual or assumed real-life situation.


faceplant

faceplants (plural)
face-plant (alternative)

From face + plant (“place, set firmly”). Originally skateboarding and snowboarding slang, a humorous variant of handplant, which is an intentional technique in these sports.

(wrestling) A wrestling move in which an attacking wrestler forces an opponent down to the mat face-first without a headlock or facelock.


barracks

There is a large barracks in this town and two other barracks are nearby.

(military) A group of buildings used by military personnel as housing.


yobo

From Korean 여보 (yeobo, “darling, sweetheart”).

bor

Grandpa doesn't want Grandma and their kids and grandkids to know that he had to get penicillin shots all the time, or that he smoked boo (marijuana) on a daily basis, or that he dealt in the black market, or that he had yobos (purchased live-in sex slaves).

2019, Ron Cook, On Guard in the General's Chorus, page 2:

(military, historical) A soldier's female Korean lover or hired prostitute.


CONUS

continental United States
continental United States#English

(chiefly military) Acronym of The continental United States; but is further defined to be the 48 states between Canada and Mexico, to include the District of Columbia.


deliberate smoke

(military) Smoke operations which are planned with much detail for implementation over large areas or relatively long time periods.


fog oil

en-noun

fog oil (usually uncountable, plural fog oils)

(military) Petroleum based oil specially blended to produce a dense, efficient, screening smoke when vaporized and recondensed at atmospheric temperatures. Officially, fog oil is standard grade fuel number 2 (SGF2).


screening length

screening length (plural screening lengths)

(military) Distance from the source of a smoke screen to the point downwind where the background begins to become recognizable.


duster

desc

→ Cebuano: daster (“type of loose dress worn at home”)

→ Indonesian: daster (“type of loose dress worn at home”)

→ Tagalog: daster (“type of loose dress worn at home”)

en:vehicle-mounted, multi-barrelled anti-aircraft gun

(military, informal) A vehicle-mounted, multi-barrelled anti-aircraft gun.


compartmentation

Nevertheless the principles of compartmentation of information and need to know are essential to secrecy.

1956, Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, volume 1, Washington: Joint Commission on Atomic Energy:

(military) The dissemination of information and knowledge between different people or organisations on a need-to-know basis, so as to reduce the risk of espionage should one person or organisation be compromised externally; compartmentalization.


communications zone

en-noun

communications zone (plural communications zones)

(military) The rear part of a theater of war or theater of operations (behind but contiguous to the combat zone) which contains the lines of communications, establishments for supply and evacuation, and other agencies required for the immediate support and maintenance of the field forces.


fan camera

(military, usually in the plural) A camera, part of an assembly of three or more cameras systematically disposed at fixed angles relative to each other so as to provide wide lateral coverage with overlapping images.


split cameras

(military) An assembly of two cameras disposed at a fixed overlapping angle relative to each other.


tri-camera photography

(military) Photography obtained by simultaneous exposure of three cameras systematically disposed in the air vehicle at fixed overlapping angles relative to each other in order to cover a wide field.


dry fire

en-verb

dry fire (third-person singular simple present dry fires, present participle dry firing, simple past and past participle dry fired)

dry fires (present singular third-person)
dry firing (participle present)
dry fired (participle past)
dry fired (past)
dryfire (alternative)
dry-fire (alternative)

Rob finished cleaning his empty gun then pointed it at an imaginary target and dry fired.

2009, Debra Parmley, A Desperate Journey, →ISBN, page 32:

(firearms) To discharge a weapon without ammunition in the chamber.

(archery) To draw and release a bow without an arrow loaded.


R'n'R

(military) rest and recuperation (or recreation)


baksheesh

en-noun

baksheesh (usually uncountable, plural baksheeshes)

baksheeshes (plural)
bachshish (alternative)
bakshee (alternative)
backsheesh (alternative)
backshish (alternative)
backsishe (alternative)
bacsheese (alternative)
bacshish (alternative)
bakhshish (alternative)
bakhshîsh (alternative)
bucksheesh (alternative)
buckshish (alternative)
buksheesh (alternative)
bukshish (alternative)
buxees (alternative)
buxies (alternative)
buxie (alternative)

From Turkish bahşiş, from Persian بخشیش (baxšiš, “present; an honorary or pecuniary gratuity; drink-money”) or بخشش (baxšeš), from بخشیدن (baxšidan, “to give, grant, bestow”).

derived

When we had made the boys as comfortable as possible and given them fags, of which our Padre seemed to have an inexhaustable^([sic]) supply, they were quite cheerful, and joked about “backsheesh” wounds.

1981, The Kia Ora Coo-ee: The Magazine for the ANZACS in the Middle East, 1918, →ISBN:

Clearly the preferred wound, it ranked in seriousness between a 'buckshee' or 'baksheesh', a slight would that merely took a man out of the line for a short time, and a 'N.Z. smack', which meant being invalided back to New Zealand, usually disabled for life.

2009, Gavin McLean, Penguin Book Of New Zealanders At War, →ISBN:

Some prayed for what was known as a 'blighty' wound or a 'backsheesh' wound, a wound that would be bad enough to have them sent home but not so bad that it would cripple them.

2018, David Hastings, Odyssey of the Unknown Anzac, →ISBN:

(military slang) A minor wound that is severe enough to get a soldier sent away from the front.


switch horn

(military) In naval mine warfare, a switch in a mine operated by a projecting spike.


sympathetic detonation

en-noun

sympathetic detonation (plural sympathetic detonations)

(especially military) Detonation of an explosive triggered by the explosion of another quantity of explosive adjacent to it.


synchronized clock

synchronized clock (plural synchronized clocks)

(military) A technique of timing the delivery of fires by placing all units on a common time. The synchronized clock uses a specific hour and minute based on either local or universal time. Local time is established using the local time zone.


changement

(fencing) A change in the tempo or rhythm of one's actions, to mislead the opponent.


dogfight

The two bi-planes swirled around each other like angry wasps in a violent dogfight.

(aviation, military) A twisting turning battle between two or more military aircraft, especially between fighters.


ashlar

ashlar (countable and uncountable, plural ashlars)

From Middle English assheler, acheler, etc., from forms of Old French esselier (“wooden support, traverse beam”), from Medieval Latin ascelāris and assellāris (equivalent to a diminutive of early forms of ais (“plank”)), variant of *axillāris (attested only after the Renaissance), from Latin axilla (“little plank”) + -āris (“-ary: forming adjectives”), from axis (“axle, plank”) + -illa (“-ella: forming diminutives”).

carreuada

well-finished masonry creating an effect similar to well-done wooden flooring

(military, historical) A stone intended for hurling by means of a catapult or similar device.


infanteer

infanteers (plural)
infantier (alternative)

From Spanish infante (“soldier”) + -eer.

suffix

Spanish <i class="Latn mention" lang="es">infante</i>

The appointment of an infanteer from The Highlanders as the Sovereign's Piper shows that the events following Culloden are no longer raw in the memory. official web site of the British Monarchy

(UK, Canada, military) A soldier employed in any infantry role; an infantryman.


red lead

Saturday/Wednesday morning breakfast beans were accompanied by corn bread and bowls of "red lead" [catsup for you landlubbers].

2003, The Four Stack APDs: The Famed Green Dragons, page 54:


Wilfred

An allusion to the newspaper cartoon strip Pip, Squeak and Wilfred.

(UK, military, World War I, slang) The Victory Medal.


infantryman

(military) a soldier employed in an infantry role


munition

From Latin mūnitiō (“a defence, fortification”) via French munition, from mūnīre (“fortify, defend (with a wall)”) + -tiō, from moenia (“city walls, defensive walls, or walls in general”). Equivalent to munite + -ion.

suf

(chiefly in the plural, military, NATO) Bombs, rockets, missiles (complete explosive devices, in contrast to e.g. guns).


rover

From Middle English roven (“to wander, to shoot an arrow randomly”) + -er.

inh

"By my hilt! no. There was little Robby Withstaff, and Andrew Salblaster, and Wat Alspaye, who broke the neck of the German. Mon Dieu! what men they were! Take them how you would, at long butts or short, hoyles, rounds, or rovers, better bowmen never twirled a shaft over their thumb-nails.

1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 22, in The White Company:

(archery, usually in the plural) A randomly selected target.


on point

Possibly from the French "en pointe" meaning to be on the tip of the toes in ballet and reflects a higher degree of skill. "On point" also describes a degree of competence and in the military the man "on point" was at the front and most exposed position in a combat military formation, that is, the leading soldier or unit advancing through hostile or unsecured territory. In recent American youth (especially hip hop) culture, the idiom "on point" refers either to someone who possesses abundant and various qualities of competence, leadership or style, or to specific acts which demonstrate such qualities.

Halo interrupted, “We are all dialed in. Music begins in five minutes. Security is on point. Light show is programmed. Do this for me: roll up the road and grab us some smokes at the convenience store across the street. Here's some cash.”

2003, Aaron Traylor, chapter 14, in The DJ Chronicles: A Life Remixed, Port Hole Publications, →ISBN, page 71:

(chiefly military) Having taken point; responsible for leading an operation; more generally, deployed and alert.


drill instructor

en-noun

drill instructor (plural drill instructors)

Army: drill sergeant

Navy: recruit division commander

Marine Corps: drill instructor

Air Force: military training instructor

Coast Guard: company commander

(US military) The generic term for the principal instructor of fresh military recruits undergoing basic training in the various branches of the United States military, routinely abbreviated to the initialism DI; always filled by enlisted personnel (a sergeant or petty officer).


code name

code names (plural)
codename (alternative)

(business, espionage, military) A name used to clandestinely identify somebody or something, either for military or espionage purposes, or for commercial confidentiality.

代號 /代号

name used to clandestinely identify something


buffalo soldier

buffalo soldier (plural buffalo soldiers)

(US, military, historical) An African-American soldier in the US Army, serving in one of a number of segregated units under white officers, in the period after the US Civil War up to the final racial integration of the US military, at the end of the Korean War.


CDR

CDR (countable and uncountable, plural CDRs)


kayfabe

Unknown, but attributed to US carnival slang (carny), usually as a purposefully obscure variant of the admonition “be fake” formed through backslang or mangled pig Latin. Also sometimes attributed to an alteration of cave (Latin for “beware”), keep cavey (“stay alert”), or an eponymous figure named Kay Fabe or Kay Fabian.

Kay Fabe (alternative)
kay fabe (alternative)
kay-fabe (alternative)
kafabe (alternative)

"Jack, Gordon and I were talking about how we heard Ric Flair do an interview where he said there was no such thing as kay-fabe any more," said Blair, referring to the fact most wrestler secrets were exposed in the 1990s.

2001 April 27, Alex Marvez, "Grappling for the Right Words?", South Florida Sun-Sentinel, p. 44

Suddenly, I heard a shout behind me: "Kayfabe! Kayfabe!" It was Gagne, freaking out and twitching and gesturing. He was afraid that some of the marks would see us in such close proximity and wonder why I wasn't choking out Wahoo with the velvet rope leading to the reservation counter, or carving him up with the ticket agent's pen. The thing was that, with the exception of the AWA guys, the terminal was empty.

2006, Eldridge Wayne Coleman & al., Tangled Ropes, p. 143

I've been breaking kayfabe a lot lately and it's bad, completely unprofessional.

2013, Saul Lemerond, "Cowboys in Rainbow City", Kayfabe & Other Stories, p. 45

(professional wrestling) The act, situation, or code of portraying staged events, performances, rivalries, etc as authentic or spontaneous.


kayfabe

My wife... currently serves as a Florida State Senator... My kayfabe wife has enormous fake breasts, bleach blonde hair, and a nose that is too small for her face.

2013, Saul Lemerond, "Cowboys in Rainbow City", Kayfabe & Other Stories, pp. 43–4

(professional wrestling) Of or related to kayfabe, especially forbidden to mention or show in order to maintain kayfabe.


kayfabe

en-verb

kayfabe (third-person singular simple present kayfabes, present participle kayfabing, simple past and past participle kayfabed)

kayfabes (present singular third-person)
kayfabing (participle present)
kayfabed (participle past)
kayfabed (past)
Kay Fabe (alternative)
kay fabe (alternative)
kay-fabe (alternative)
kafabe (alternative)

...Mascaras was never one of the boys. Here's an example: after his matches, he'd shower with his mask on. I understand protecting your image, but the guy was kayfabing us.

2006, Eldridge Wayne Coleman & al., Tangles Ropes, p. 97

He joked around with me and had me laughing so hard that it was tough not to feel silly about being "kayfabed.

2013, Julie Hart, Hart Strings, →ISBN, page 54:

(professional wrestling) To maintain kayfabe, to deceive by staying in character.


chumming

(military, aviation, historical) The use of a lit aeroplane to draw enemy fire so that the enemy can be destroyed by another aeroplane whose lights are off.


case-shot

anti-personnel weapon
anti-personnel weapon

(military, natuical, historical) A mixture of stones and old iron, put into a wooden case and fired from a cannon as an anti-personnel weapon.


field marshal

From field + marshal, calque of German Feldmarschall or its source, Middle French maréchal de camp.

(military) In certain nations the highest military rank, ranking below only the commander in chief; now essentially disused.

field marshall

highest military rank after the commander in chief


forced march

I did not believe this possible because of the distance and the condition of the roads, which was bad; besides, troops after a forced march of twenty miles are not in a good condition for fighting the moment they get through.

1885, Ulysses S. Grant, chapter 28, in Personal memoirs of U.S. Grant^(http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=327093481&tag=Grant,+Ulysses+S.+(Ulysses+Simpson),+1822-1885.:+Personal+memoirs+of+U.S.+Grant,+Volume+I,+1885&query=forced+march&id=GraPers):

[M]any of their leaders could not yet wholly believe that Jackson and his army, making a forced march in the dead of winter, were at hand.

1914, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 4, in The Scouts of Stonewall:

American and Filipino prisoners from the fall of Corregidor in 1942 were refused food and water on a six-day, 97-km forced march to their place of confinement at Camp O'Donnell.

2001 June 24, Howard Chua-Eoan, “War of the Worlds”, in Time, retrieved 2013-08-08:

(military) A movement on foot by soldiers or prisoners of war, who must, in order to satisfy a military requirement, travel at a speed or in adverse conditions that would normally tire them excessively.


AUTODIN

(military) Abbreviation of automatic digital network: the standard digital computer network of the US military.


waza-ari

(judo) a throw in which the opponent is thrown with control and accuracy, but not to the extent of an ippon, or held on the back for between 20 and 25 seconds on the mat; the score of half a point awarded for this throw

wazari

a judo throw in which the opponent is thrown with control and accuracy


ippon

Borrowed from Japanese 一本 (“one full point”).

(martial arts, judo) The highest score in judo, awarded for a throw that places the opponent on their back with impetus or for holding the opponent on their back for a number of seconds.


splint

From Middle English splint, splent, splente, from Middle Low German splinte, splente or Middle Dutch splint, splinte. Cognate with Old High German splinza (“bar, bolt, latch”). All ultimately from Proto-Germanic *splintǭ, *splintō (“piece of wood, splinter”), from Proto-Germanic *splint-, *splind- (“to split”), from a nasalized form of *splītaną (“to split”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to split, splice”).

der

The fore-part of his thighs, where the folds of his mantle permitted them to be seen, were also covered with linked mail; the knees and feet were defended by splints, or thin plates of steel, ingeniously jointed upon each other; and mail hose, reaching from the ancle to the knee, effectually protected the legs, and completed the rider's defensive armour.

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter II, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 25:

(military, historical) A segment of armour consisting of a narrow overlapping plate.


backhaul

en-noun

backhaul (countable and uncountable, plural backhauls)

(military) The shipment of material to or through an area from which the material had previously been shipped.


Rupert

A German name, brought to England by Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the seventeenth century. Doublet of Robert.

(derogatory, slang, military) A junior army officer.


Matilda

Matildas (plural)
Mathilda (alternative)

From Middle English Matilda, from Old French Mathilde, from Old High German Mahthilt, Mehthilt, from Proto-Germanic *Mahtihildiz; compare German Mechthild, Old English Mæþhild (“Matilda”).

(UK, army, historical) Either of two British infantry tanks in use during World War II, the Infantry Tank Mark I or Infantry Tank Mark II.


incoming

(military) A warning that something is coming towards the addressee, especially enemy artillery fire.


incoming

incoming (countable and uncountable, plural incomings)

From Middle English incomming, in comyng, in-comyng, incomyng, in-comynge, incomynge, inne comyng, yn comyng, equivalent to in (adverb) + coming (noun).

Volume, however, was only part of the story because the incoming was almost always the heavier stuff. The hill received little 60mm or 82mm mortar fire but a deluge of 120mm mortar and 100mm artillery rounds.

1977, Moyers S. Shore, The Battle for Khe Sanh:

I'll never forget the sight of those cannoneers standing at their guns firing back while the incoming was hitting all over. That was artillery's mission.

1992, Michael R. Conroy, Don't tell America!, page 120:

Things had improved a little bit compared to the Eastern Solomons, and three dozen F4F Wildcats on combat air patrol were vectored onto the oncoming hostiles, but once that initial task was accomplished, things began to collapse back into the cacophony and chaos that was all too familiar to those aboard the Enterprise, meaning that the end result was round about the same, the Japanese aircraft screaming into their attack runs on Hornet about the same time as most of the Wildcats managed to sort themselves out to begin their own attacks on the incoming.

2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 11:05 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 2022-12-04:

(uncountable, military) Enemy fire directed at oneself.


reformed

en-adj

reformed (comparative more reformed, superlative most reformed)

more reformed (comparative)
most reformed (superlative)

(UK, military, of an officer) Retained in service on half or full pay after the disbandment of the company or troop.


turn around

en-verb

turn around (third-person singular simple present turns around, present participle turning around, simple past and past participle turned around)

turns around (present singular third-person)
turning around (participle present)
turned around (participle past)
turned around (past)

Some months ago, the Captain had come to the FBI with a story that he had been contacted by Soviet agents, and the FBI had “turned him around” and used him to plant false and specially made up classified material of no importance on the Soviets.

2014, Joseph DiMona, To the Eagle's Nest:

(transitive, espionage) To convert (an agent) to work for one's own side.


lapping

en-noun

lapping (countable and uncountable, plural lappings)

From Middle English lapping, lappyng, lappinge, equivalent to lap + -ing.

(firearms) The process of rubbing away the lands, or metal between the grooves of a rifled gun, to increase the bore.


Pearl Harbor

/ˌpɝ˞l ˈhɑɹbɚ/

/ˌpɜːl ˈhɑːbə/

Calque of Hawaiian Wai Momi (“pearl water”). The extended senses allude to the surprise attack executed by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the harbor on December 7, 1941.

cal

en:Pearl Harbor
en:Pearl Harbor (disambiguation)

Bluto: What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: [to Boon] Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.

1978, Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller, Animal House (motion picture), spoken by Bluto (John Belushi), Universal Pictures:

(military) A naval base in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, United States: a US Navy base


pompadour

pompadours (plural)
pompador (alternative)

/ˈpɑːmpədɔːɹ/

From French Pompadour, after Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), mistress of Louis XV.

(UK, military, slang, historical) A member of the 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot, an infantry regiment in the British Army, active from 1755 to 1881.


scalawag

scalawags (plural)
scallawag (alternative)
scalliwag (alternative)
scallywag (alternative)
skalawag (alternative)

Of obscure origin, perhaps from the name of the Shetland village of Scalloway (from Old Norse Skálavágr), known for its dwarf ponies and dwarf cattle.

(Philippines, law enforcement, military) rogue police; rogue military personnel


jobber

My argument has ALWAYS been that 99.9% of all wrestlers are jobbers (and I'm 100% correct).

1998 December 30, Don Martin, “Get over it, Jericho would be nothing but a jobber in the WWF:”, in rec.sport.pro-wrestling (Usenet):

I agree, Superstars got a bit dull with the jobber matches at times but it furthered storylines so they didn't have to give away PPV matches on a regular TV show...

2001 February 9, GraDee, “Reminiscing the jobber matches era from "WWF Superstars"”, in alt.pro-wrestling.nostalgia (Usenet):

(professional wrestling slang) A performer whose primary role is to lose to established talent.


ring rat

(professional wrestling, slang) A promiscuous person, often a young female, who attends professional wrestling events primarily to seek sexual liaisons with wrestlers and other performers.


ham-and-egger

From boxing, where a poor boxer would only win enough money to pay for meals; ham and egg + -er.

(wrestling slang) A preliminary wrestler; a jobber.

Well, it's just that, you see, uh, I fight in clubs, you know, and uh, I'm really a ham-and-egger. This guy, he's the best, and uh, it wouldn't be such a good fight.

1976 November 21, Rocky, spoken by Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone):


warhorse

Just within the inner edge of the circle stood a soldier, in the military attire of a strange nation; and without it was his warhorse, in the center of a collection of mounted domestics, seemingly in readiness to undertake some distant journey.

1826, [James Fenimore Cooper], The Last of the Mohicans; a Narrative of 1757. […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea— […], →OCLC:

As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his war-horse, galloped forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief bound round his wounded arm.

1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “How a Champion Came forth from the East”, in The White Company […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 254–255:

(historical, military) Any horse used in horse-cavalry, but especially one bearing an armoured knight.


DSC

en-noun

DSC (countable and uncountable, plural DSCs)

Distinguished Service Cross
w:Distinguished Service Cross

(military, British, US, Australia) Initialism of Distinguished Service Cross.


call sign

call signs (plural)
callsign (alternative)
call-sign (alternative)

Charlie: I'm Charlotte Blackwood.
Maverick: I'm Maverick.
Charlie: Did your mother not like you?
Maverick: No, it's my call sign.

1986, Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr., Top Gun (motion picture):

Four drone operators, led by Shved, whose call sign means “the Swede” on account of his blond hair, […]

2023 June 17, Dan Sabbagh, “‘It’s 21st-century warfare’: on Ukraine’s counteroffensive frontline”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:

(military) Any combination of characters or pronounceable words, which identifies a communication facility, a command, an authority, an activity, or a unit; used primarily for establishing and maintaining communications.


pepperbox

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pepperbox.wav

She had her knees up, resting her wrists on them; the pepperbox muzzle of a flechette pistol emerged from her hands.

1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 21:

(firearms) A repeating firearm with three or more barrels grouped around a central axis.


collective call sign

collective call sign (plural collective call signs)

CHARLIE PAPA: Command Post of the 1098th Transportation Company (Medium Boat) in Vietnam.

CHARLIE 34: Landing Craft #34 of the 1098th Transportation Company (Medium Boat) in Vietnam.

CHARLIE 6: Commmander of the 1098th Transportation Company (Medium Boat) in Vietnam.

(military) Any call sign which represents two or more facilities, commands, authorities, or units. The collective call sign for any of these includes the commander thereof and all subordinate commanders therein.


indefinite call sign

indefinite call sign (plural indefinite call signs)

(military) A call sign which does not represent a specific facility, command, authority, activity, or unit, but which may represent any one or any group of these.


international call sign

international call sign (plural international call signs)

(military) A call sign assigned in accordance with the provisions of the International Telecommunications Union to identify a radio station. The nationality of the radio station is identified by the first or the first two characters. (When used in visual signaling, international call signs are referred to as “signal letters.”)


net call sign

(military) A call sign that represents all stations within a net.


tactical call sign

tactical call sign (plural tactical call signs)

(military) A call sign that identifies a tactical command or tactical communication facility.

NATO Military Symbols for Land Based Systems


camouflet

(military) The resulting cavity in a deep underground burst when there is no rupture of the surface.


cobbing

cobbing (countable and uncountable, plural cobbings)

Previous to the infliction of cobbing, or booting, the delinquent is fairly tried by a court, consisting of–a president, the oldest soldier; members, next two oldest soldiers, youngest soldier, next youngest soldier.

1846, Henry Marshall, Military Miscellany, page 156:

(military, prison) an unofficial form of punishment among the crew or prisoners involving blows to the buttocks from a piece of wood or a handsaw.


floryshe

(martial arts) In the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts, an unstructured practice routine of guard transitions, cuts, thrusts, slices and parries with appropriate footwork; an expression of techniques already learned in an original way.


MFWIC

(military) Initialism of military figure who's in charge.

(slang, military) Initialism of motherfucker who's in charge.


tomato can

Presumably because of tendency to bleed when battered, tomato juice leaking from a can being a metaphor for bleeding.

(slang, boxing, derogatory) An inferior fighter in the sport of boxing. The insinuation is that an up-and-coming fighter takes on a "tomato can" to burnish his reputation and record.

(slang, boxing) A boxer who takes a dive, or loses a fight on purpose.


quick time

(military) A fast marching pace of 120 thirty-inch steps per minute.


montant

From Italian montante. Doublet of mountant.

HOST: To see thee fight, to see thee foin, to see thee traverse; to see thee pass thy punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy montant.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

(fencing, archaic) An upward cut with a blade


tercio

(military) A mutually supportive infantry formation made up of pikemen, swordsmen and arquebusiers or musketeers.


screening smoke

screening smoke (countable and uncountable, plural screening smokes)

(military) Smoke clouds used by the military for blinding, cover and deception


magnetic mine

Coordinate term: limpet mine

(military) A mine, often a naval mine, which responds to the magnetic field of a target.


magnetic compass

magnetic compass (plural magnetic compasses)

(military, nautical) An instrument containing a freely suspended magnetic element which displays the direction of the horizontal component of the Earth’s magnetic field at the point of observation.


magnetic variation

magnetic variation (countable and uncountable, plural magnetic variations)

(military, nautical, navigation) In navigation, at a given place and time, the horizontal angle between the true north and magnetic north measured east or west according to whether magnetic north lies east or west of true north.


fire and forget

(military) A kind of missile guidance system which does not require further control after launch, and can hit its target without the launcher being in line of sight of the target.


musketeer

musketeers (plural)
musqueteer (alternative)

From Middle French mousquetaire in the late 16th century. By surface analysis, musket + -eer. Doublet of mousquetaire.

(military, historical) A foot soldier armed with a musket.

(military, historical) In 17th- and 18th-century France, a member of the royal household bodyguard.


SRAM

SRAM (countable and uncountable, plural SRAMs)


MLC

military load classification
military load classification#English

(military) Initialism of military load classification.


BMS

BMS (countable and uncountable, plural BMSes or BMSs)

(military) Initialism of battlefield management system.


countermeasure

(military, chiefly in the plural) Any of the devices and techniques used to impair the operational effectiveness of an enemy.


sonobuoy

(nautical, military) A buoy that sends a radio signal when it detects the sound of underwater objects (such as submarines).


chamade

Borrowed from French chamade, from Italian or Portuguese, from Latin clamare.

But when the chamade was beat, and the corporal helped my uncle up it, and followed with the colours in his hand, to fix them upon the ramparts.

1762, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume 6, Penguin, published 2003, page 402:

(military, historical) A signal sounded on a drum or trumpet inviting a parley.

Schamade

a signal sounded on a drum or trumpet inviting a parley


UNIFIL

w:United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon

(UN, military) Acronym of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.


BEF

B.E.F. (alternative)
B. E. F. (alternative)

British Expeditionary Force
w:British Expeditionary Force

(military, UK) Initialism of British Expeditionary Force.


woobie

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-woobie.wav

From the 1983 film Mr. Mom, in which it is a child's word for his security blanket.

baby girl

male morally-ambiguous character romanticised by fans

Draco in Leather Pants

any morally-ambiguous character romanticised by fans

poor little meow meow

endearingly pathetic villain or morally-ambiguous character


wakey

'You beauty, only 364 and a wakey to go,' the countdown had begun and would continue, as few days passed without someone calling the time. I spared a thought for our temporary enemy whose tour would endure to the end of the war[…]

Morale was also usually high, helped by the men's recognition that their service in Vietnam had strict limits – one year, or, to use a soldiers' expression of the time, 364 days and a 'wakey' (the day the men woke to prepare to fly out).

2010, Ian McGibbon, New Zealand's Vietnam War, page 542:

When you became a 'short timer' (20 days and a wakey) you delighted in sticking it up to the new arrivals.

2011, Richard "Barney" Bigwood, We Were Reos: Australian Infantry Reinforcements in VIETNAM (page 47)

(military, slang) The day on which one wakes up and travels home.


AIM

(US, military) Acronym of air intercept missile.


electric chair

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-electric chair.wav

(wrestling) A transitional hold in which an attacking wrestler hoists an opponent up onto his/her shoulders so that they are both facing in the same direction.


ARVN

Army of the Republic of Vietnam
w:Army of the Republic of Vietnam

(military, historical) Initialism of Army of the Republic of Vietnam.


deploy

Borrowed from French déployer (“to unroll, unfold”), from Old French desploiier, itself from des- + ploiier, or possibly from Late Latin displicāre (“to unfold, display”), from Latin dis- (“apart”) + plicare (“to fold”). Doublet of display.


holdover

en-noun

holdover (countable and uncountable, plural holdovers)

This rangefinder not only measures the distance to the target, but also provides a digital readout of the inches of holdover at that distance.

(firearms) The distance (at target) by which a rifle scope is aimed higher than the intended point of impact in order to compensate for bullet drop over the distance to the target.


corpsman

The corpsman prescribed Motrin to the sick marine for his symptoms.

(US, military, nautical) A hospital corpsman.

(deprecated, US, military) An enlisted person in the U.S. Army who works as a field medic.

hospik

(medicine, military, nonstandard) A military medic.


can opener

can openers (plural)
can-opener (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-can opener.wav

(military, nautical, slang) A ramming maneuver, that opens up the target ship like a tin can.

(military, slang) An anti-tank munition or attack vehicle, that opens up armour like a tin can.


orgue

From French orgue, from Latin organum (“organ, instrument, tool”), from Ancient Greek ὄργανον (órganon, “organ, instrument, tool”). Doublet of organ, organon, and organum.

der

(military) Any of a number of long, thick pieces of timber, pointed and shod with iron, and suspended, each by a separate rope, over a gateway, to be let down in case of attack.

(military) A piece of ordnance, consisting of a number of musket barrels arranged so that a match or train may connect with all their touchholes, and a discharge be secured almost or quite simultaneously.


double-time

en-verb

double-time (third-person singular simple present double-times, present participle double-timing, simple past and past participle double-timed)

double-times (present singular third-person)
double-timing (participle present)
double-timed (participle past)
double-timed (past)
doubletime (alternative)

(intransitive, military) To march at double time.

[…]after ten or fifteen minutes of preparation, he stopped the artillery and instructed Corporal Lamb to double-time his platoon to the intermediate knoll under cover of fire from the machine guns.

1954, Russell A. Gugeler, “Combat Actions in Korea”, in CMH Publication 30-2:

(transitive, military) To order troops to march at double time.


kye

[…] wrapped in layers of warm clothing against rushing icy air, and all longing for bubbling hot kye (Navy cocoa) at midnight.

2009, John Roberts, Safeguarding the Nation: The Story of the Modern Royal Navy:

Then he walked back to the wheelhouse. Guido arrived with three cups of kye and a plate of hot buttered toast.

2013, David Arnold, Hursey in Conflict: A Story of Love and Victory, page 73:


danger space

(military) The areas between a weapon and its target in which the trajectory is not greater than the typical height of a human (about 1.8 meters).

(military) The area or space around the target of a missile in which it has a probability of landing or exploding.


headspace

en-noun

headspace (countable and uncountable, plural headspaces)

headspaces (plural)
head space (alternative)
head-space (alternative)

en:gap inside firearm action, bolt face to cartridge stop

(firearms) The gap between the face of the bolt and the stopping surface for the cartridge.


headspace

en-verb

headspace (third-person singular simple present headspaces, present participle headspacing, simple past and past participle headspaced)

headspaces (present singular third-person)
headspacing (participle present)
headspaced (participle past)
headspaced (past)
head space (alternative)
head-space (alternative)


dependa

(US, military, slang, derogatory) Clipping of dependapotamus.


cannoneer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-cannoneer.wav

Luckily, the cannoneer was only mildly injured when his cannon malfunctioned.

Just as the Spring came laughing through the strife,
With all its gorgeous cheer;
In the bright April of historic life,
Fell the great cannoneer.

1908, James Ryder Randall, “Pelham”, in Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems, Baltimore, Md., New York: John Murphy Company, page 20:

(military) A person who tends and operates a piece of artillery, especially a cannon.

kanonýr

person who operates a piece of artillery, especially a cannon


basher

Suddenly awake she looked around, startled, it was light, hot, intensely hot and she was sleeping in a shell scrape under a basher.

2014, LA Clarke, Callsign Whiskey, page 24:

I was well used to sleeping out under the stars whatever the weather. I had a hammock and a basher, a rain sheet to go over where I was sleeping.

(military, slang) A rainproof sheet for sleeping under.


kaymakam

kaymakams (plural)
qaimaqam (alternative)
qaim maqam (alternative)
kaimakam (alternative)
kaimacon (alternative)
kaimacan (alternative)
kaimakan (alternative)
kaimacham (alternative)
kaimacam (alternative)
caimacon (alternative)
caimacan (alternative)
caimakan (alternative)
caimacham (alternative)
caimacam (alternative)
caimakam (alternative)
caimaicon (alternative)
caimaican (alternative)
caimaikan (alternative)
caimaicham (alternative)
caimaicam (alternative)
caimaikam (alternative)
caymacon (alternative)
caymacan (alternative)
caymakan (alternative)
caymacham (alternative)
caymacam (alternative)
caymakam (alternative)
chaimacon (alternative)
chaimacan (alternative)
chaimakan (alternative)
chaimacham (alternative)
chaimacam (alternative)
chaimakam (alternative)
chaymacon (alternative)
chaymacan (alternative)
chaymakan (alternative)
chaymacham (alternative)
chaymacam (alternative)
chaymakam (alternative)

/kʌɪməˈkɑːm/

From Ottoman Turkish قایمقام (kaymakam), from Arabic مَقَام قَائِم (qāʔim maqām, “stand in”).

der

Arabic مَقَام

kajmekam

Various deputies or administrators in Turkish contexts

A lieutenant or deputy in various Turkish contexts, particularly

(military, historical) A lieutenant colonel in the Ottoman or early Turkish army, replaced by the rank of yarbay.


kayo

His stunning title-winning kayo of Charles captivated the country, and on top of everything, he was actually an amazing fighter for one of his years, both as a puncher and boxer.

2023, Ian Phimister, David Patrick, editors, A Boxing Legacy: The Life and Works of Writer and Cartoonist Ted Carroll, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 239:


reconnoitre

en-verb

reconnoitre (third-person singular simple present reconnoitres, present participle reconnoitring, simple past and past participle reconnoitred)

reconnoitres (present singular third-person)
reconnoitring (participle present)
reconnoitred (participle past)
reconnoitred (past)
reconnoiter (alternative US)
reconnaitre (alternative archaic)
reconnaître (alternative rare)
reconnoître (alternative rare)

/ˌɹɛkəˈnɔɪtə/

[ˌɹʷɛkəˈnɔɪ̯tʰə]

/ˌɹɛkəˈnɔɪtɚ/

[ˌɹˠɛkəˈnɔɪ̯ɾɚ]

From French reconnoître (obsolete spelling of reconnaître), from Latin recognoscere (“to recognise”). There is also an obsolete 19th-century British English spelling reconnaitre, influenced by the modern French form.

Our scout will reconnoitre the path ahead of our troops.

Not a drop of rain fell; the clouds went portentously off, like ships of war after reconnoitering a strong fort, to return with added strength and fury.

1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 150:

"Damn!" said Tommy, and tried to sit up. He had remembered. He was in that sinister house in Soho. He uttered a groan and fell back. Through his almost-closed lids he reconnoitred carefully.

1922, Agatha Christie, “Chapter 16”, in The Secret Adversary:

(transitive, intransitive, military) To perform a reconnaissance (of an area; an enemy position); to scout with the aim of gaining information.


JATO

en-noun

JATO (countable and uncountable, plural JATOs)

(uncountable) Acronym of jet-assisted takeoff, a method of using booster rockets to allow heavily-loaded aircraft to lift off more quickly and use less runway length for takeoff.

jet-assisted takeoff

An enduring urban legend claims that someone in Arizona strapped a JATO to their car and crashed it into a cliff.

(countable) One of the rockets used for the above purpose.


crewman

armoured crewman
armoured crewman#English

(Canada, military) Synonym of armoured crewman


aparejo

(historical, especially military) A kind of packsaddle formerly used in the United States military, and in Latin America, made of leather stuffed with hay, moss, or similar substances.

albarda

packsaddle made of leather stuffed with hay


deprime

en-verb

deprime (third-person singular simple present deprimes, present participle depriming, simple past and past participle deprimed)

deprimes (present singular third-person)
depriming (participle present)
deprimed (participle past)
deprimed (past)

(firearms) to remove the (remnant) primer from a cartridge casing (from the brass).


HM

HMs (plural)
H.M. (alternative)
H. M. (alternative)

(military, US) Abbreviation of hospital corpsman.


quint

A musical or piquet term, or a quintuplet

From Middle French quint, from Latin quīntus. Doublet of quintus.

(fencing) quinte; the fifth fencer in parrying or attacking position.


blackouts

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-blackouts.wav

Coordinate term: twilights

[…] her blackouts. When the Officer inspected everything went well. The only thing was that two of our WAAF were not wearing any knickers at all!

1995, Beryl E. Escott, Our Wartime Days: The WAAF in World War 2, page 35:

We had what were called the ‘blackouts’ and ‘twilights’. The blackouts were a dark sort of long-legged knickers, dark wintry ones, and the twilights were a lighter blue in a sort of Celanese material.

2011 December 13, Peter Liddle, Captured Memories, 1930–1945: Across the Threshold of War: The Thirties and the War, Casemate Publishers, →ISBN, →OCLC:

(military, slang, historical) Long, dark-coloured underwear worn by the WAAF in winter.


twilights

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-twilights.wav

Coordinate term: blackouts

(military, slang, historical) Long, light-coloured underwear worn by the WAAF.


hipe

(wrestling) A throw in which the wrestler lifts his opponent from the ground, swings him to one side, knocks up his nearer thigh from the back with the knee, and throws him on his back.


hipe

hipe (third-person singular simple present hipes, present participle hiping, simple past and past participle hiped)

hipes (present singular third-person)
hiping (participle present)
hiped (participle past)
hiped (past)
hype (alternative)

(wrestling, ambitransitive) To throw (an opponent) using this technique.


uppercut

(boxing) A swinging blow aimed upwards at the opponent's chin.


whitewall

A weird elongated creature with a whitewall haircut who had the big head as well as hands and fat thighs of the acromegalic, he was an uninhibited cross-dresser suffering from Gender Identity Disorder who constantly appeared in frocks.

2007, Alexander Theroux, Laura Warholic: Or, The Sexual Intellectual:

A blond kid with a whitewall haircut and long, thin sideburns came over to stand beside the kid with the wimpy Roman do.

With a whitewall crew cut, high and tight.

2016, Lee Child, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: A Jack Reacher Novel:

(US, military) Describing a hair cut with a closely cropped back and sides and the hair on the top of the head left longer.


whitewall

(US, military) A hair cut with a closely cropped back and sides and the hair on the top of the head left longer.


(US, military, historical) Cox-Klemin A-1 Air Ambulance, never mass produced.

(US, military) Skyraider single engine general-purpose attack aircraft.

(US, military) Personnel section of an air force staff.


forlorn hope

/fəˌlɔːn ˈhəʊp/

Peninsular War
Siege of San Sebastián
William Barnes Wollen

Sense 1 (“troop of soldiers picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack”) is a mistranslation of Dutch verloren hoop (literally “lost troop”): verloren (“lost”, adjective) + hoop (“(obsolete) unit of soldiers, contingent; heap, pile, stack”), mistaking the latter word for the homograph hoop (“hope”). Verloren is the past participle of verliezen (“to lose (possession); to be defeated, to lose (a game)”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fraleusaną (“to cease to have, lose”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“before, in front; first”) + *lewH- (“to cut, sever; to separate; to loosen; to lose”)), while hoop is ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haupaz (“a crowd, throng; a heap, pile”), from Proto-Indo-European *kouHp-nó- or *keHup-.
Sense 2 (“dangerous or hopeless venture”) is either an extension of the meaning of sense 1, or from the literal meaning of the words forlorn and hope.

ref

From Archibald Forbes, G[eorge] A[lfred] Henty, Arthur Griffiths [et al.] (1901) Battles of the Nineteenth Century, London: Cassell and Company, →OCLC.

der

Ped[ro]. Stand to your guard ſir, all the devils extant / Are broke upon us, like a cloud of thunder; / There are more women, marching hitherward, / In reſcue of my Miſtris, then ere turn’d taile / At Sturbridge Faire; and I believe, as fiery. / Jaq[ues]. The forlorn-hope’s led by a tanners wife, / I know her by her hide; a deſperate woman: [...]

c. 1609–1622?, John Fletcher, “The Womans Prize: Or, The Tamer Tamed”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene v, page 106, column 1:

For Books and fine Pictures are the Forlorn-hope, as it were, of the Catholick Cloyſters and Convents; and as there are few of the Monks that underſtand either, upon any great Emergency they ſooner chuſe to convert theſe Moveables into Money, than to melt down their ſuperfluous Hoards of Plate; Treaſures which are oftentimes by far the leſs valuable.

1726, J[ohn Durant] Breval, “Franche Comte”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Europe: Relating Chiefly to the History, Antiquities and Geography, of Those Countries though which the Author has Travel’d; […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot […], →OCLC, page 200:

Our Trenches were immediately open'd towards the Dauphin Baſtion, againſt which were planted many Cannon, in order to make a Breach; my ſelf as Probationer being twice put upon the forlorn Hope to facilitate that difficult Piece of Service.

1728, George Carleton, The Military Memoirs of Capt. George Carleton. From the Dutch War, 1672. in which he Serv’d, to the Conclusion of the Peace at Utrecht, 1713. […], London: […] E[dward] Symon, […], →OCLC, page 23:

[…] Pipes, who acted as the enemy's forlorn hope, advanced to the gate with great intrepidity, and clapping his foot to the door, which was none of the ſtouteſt, with the execution and diſpatch of a petard, ſplit it into a thouſand pieces.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “He is Concerned in a Dangerous Adventure with a Certain Gardener; […]”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 134:

[Benedict] Arnold, therefore, as usual with him, led the forlorn hope, marching about one hundred yards before the main body.

1880, Isaac N[ewton] Arnold, “Assault upon Quebec”, in The Life of Benedict Arnold; His Patriotism and His Treason, Chicago, Ill.: Jansen, McClurg & Company, →OCLC, page 82:

Lieutenant Templeton of the 76th offered to lead the forlorn hope. [...] So steep, however, was the ascent, and so continuous and well directed the fire upon it by the enemy from the bastion nearest to it, that but few men succeeded in reaching the summit. The first of these was young Templeton, the leader of the forlorn hope, but he was at once shot dead.

1885, G[eorge] B[ruce] Malleson, “Bharatpúr”, in The Decisive Battles of India from 1746 to 1849 inclusive. […], 2nd edition, London: W[illiam] H. Allen & Co., […], →OCLC, page 323:

He's the pride of our Vicksburg army. Not afraid of hell. A chivalrous man, a forlorn-hope man.

1901 May, Winston Churchill, “A Strange Meeting”, in The Crisis, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, book III, page 433:

He felt the stress and strain of life, its fevers and sweats and wild insurgences—surely this was the stuff to write about! He wanted to glorify the leaders of forlorn hopes, the mad lovers, the giants that fought under stress and strain, amid terror and tragedy, making life crackle with the strength of their endeavor.

1908 September – 1909 September, Jack London, chapter XIV, in Martin Eden, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published September 1909, →OCLC, page 117:

After exploding a mine, a forlorn hope of fifty English troops rushed out from one of the tunnels and made good their footing upon the ramparts.

1922, George Edmundson, “From the End of the Twelve Years’ Truce to the Peace of Munster, 1621–1648. The Stadholderate of Frederick Henry of Orange.”, in History of Holland (Cambridge Historical Series), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, →OCLC, page 147:

There will be would-be saviours of a disintegrating society who will refuse to despair of the Present and will lead forlorn hopes in an endeavour to turn the tide and to convert the rout into a fresh advance, without being willing to 'retreat according to plan' for the sake of even temporarily breaking off contact with an enemy who has at any rate momentarily gained the upper hand.

1939, Arnold J[oseph] Toynbee, “The Disintegrations of Civilizations (cont.)”, in A Study of History, volume VI, London: Oxford University Press; Geoffrey Cumberlege, […], published 1955, →OCLC, section C(II)(a) (The Relation between Disintegrating Civilizations and Individuals), page 177:

A detachment of 400 Continental soldiers waited anxiously outside Yorktown on the dark and bone-chilling evening of October 14, 1781. Pangs of uncertainty spread through the ranks, for these men were the advance party, the "forlorn hope," on the attack of the British fortifications at Yorktown.

2001, “The Purple Heart Legacy”, in editorial staff of the Military Order of the Purple Heart and Turner Publishing Company, compilers, The Legacy of the Purple Heart, 4th edition, Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 15:

A small troop of soldiers picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack; a storming party.

決死隊 /决死队

[T]o make this realme a praye to al venturers, al ſpoylers, all ſnaphanſes, all forlornehopes, all cormerauntes, all reuenours of the worlde, that wyll inuade this realme, is to ſaye, thou poſſeſſyoner of any landes of this realme, of what degree ſo euer thou be, fro the higheſt to the loweſt, ſhalte be ſlayne and deſtroyed, and thy landes taken frome the by thoſe that wyl haue al for them ſelfes.

1539 April 9, Cuthbert Tunstall, A Sermon of Cuthbert Tonstall, Bishop of Durham, Preached on Palm Sunday, 1539, before King Henry VIII. […], London: […] [J. Compton, […]] for T[homas] Rodd, […], published 1823, →OCLC:

(obsolete) In the plural form forlorn hopes: the soldiers collectively making up such a troop; (by extension) a group of reckless adventurers.


LGM

(US, DOD, military) Prefix code for a silo-launched surface-attack guided missile.


horsetail

horsetails (plural)
horse tail (alternative)

From Middle English horsetaile, horstaile, equivalent to horse + tail.

Commanders were distinguished by the number of horsetails carried before them. The sultan had seven, the grand vizier five, and the pashas three, two, or one.

(military) A Turkish standard denoting rank.


initiator

‘This, er, initiator of polonium and lithium, would it be used in an anti-personnel bomb?’ he asked. ‘Oh yes, you could say so, boyo,’ replied the Welshman. ‘An initiator, you see, is what sets off a nuke.’

1984, Frederick Forsyth, The Fourth Protocol, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 301:

(military) A component of a nuclear weapon that produces a burst of neutrons to start the chain reaction.


NOC

en-noun

NOC (countable and uncountable, plural NOCs)

non-official cover
non-official cover#English

(espionage) Initialism of non-official cover.


toman

tomans (plural)
tumen (alternative)
tomaun (alternative)
tomin (alternative)
touman (alternative)

Borrowed from Classical Persian تومان (tōman), from Mongolian түмэн (tümen).

(historical, military) A division of 10,000 men in the Mongolian army.

түмэн

a division of 10,000 men in the Mongolian army


ski jump

(military) The ramp at the prow of an aircraft carrier which uses STOVL or STOBAR aircraft.


foot soldier

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-foot solider.wav

(military) A soldier who fights on foot; an infantryman


chronograph

en-verb

chronograph (third-person singular simple present chronographs, present participle chronographing, simple past and past participle chronographed)

chronographs (present singular third-person)
chronographing (participle present)
chronographed (participle past)
chronographed (past)

/ˈkɹɒnəɡɹɑːf/

/ˈkɹɑnəˌɡɹæf/

From Ancient Greek χρονογράφος (khronográphos, “chronicler”). Equivalent to chrono- + -graph.

uder

(firearms) To make an accurate measurement of the speed of a projectile.


eggbeater

eggbeaters (plural)
egg beater (alternative)

He scanned the horizon to the south, searching in vain for the eggbeater.

2008, George Galdorisi, Thomas Phillips, Leave No Man Behind: The Saga of Combat Search and Rescue:


greenie

From green + -ie. Environmentalist sense first attested in Australia in 1973, referring to trade unionists who supported green bans.


civvies

* (Apparel): From a clipping of civilian clothes.

(military slang, plural only) Civilian clothes.


glacis

Borrowed from French glacis (“slippery surface”), derived from Old French glacier (“to glide; freeze”), the former from Latin glaciāre (“to freeze”), from glaciēs (“ice”), of uncertain origin.
Cognates
* Medieval Latin glatia (“incline in front of a fortification”)

cog

[T]ook his place with solemn / Air 'midst the rest, who kept their valiant faces / And levelled weapons still against the glacis.

1823 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos VI.—VII.—and VIII., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto VIII, stanza XXXIV, page 128:

[T]heir hearts had failed them at the silence and the blaze of lighted ships from end to end of the harbour, with eerie beams of the searchlights revealing the bleakness of the glacis they would have to cross.

1922 (date written; published 1926), T[homas] E[dward] Lawrence, “Book II: Opening the Arab Offensive. Chapter XX.”, in Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, published 1937, →OCLC, page 130:

(architecture, also figuratively) A gentle incline in front of a fortification which protects it from cannon fire and exposes attackers to more effective return fire from defenders.

гласіс

In full glacis plate: the angled armour plate on the front of a tank which protects it from projectiles; also (often nautical), such a plate protecting an opening (for example, on a ship).


pom-pom

onom

Imitative

(military) A rapid-firing small-calibre cannon used especially as an anti-aircraft gun.

автоматично зенитно оръдие

(military) rapid-firing small-calibre cannon


RA

(military) Initialism of rear admiral, a rank in the Royal Navy.


armoured

an armoured unit; the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps

(military) Equipped with armoured vehicles.


antipersonnel

(military, euphemistic) Designed to kill soldiers.


Empty Quiver

(US, euphemistic, military) The seizure, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon.


Faded Giant

(US, euphemistic, military) A reporting term to identify an event involving a nuclear reactor or radiological accident.


tour of duty

Almost every Marine in Viet Nam carries a short-timer’s calendar of his tour of duty—the usual 365 days—plus a bonus of 20 days for being a Marine.

1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 45:

(military) A period of time spent on a specific assignment, especially on an overseas mission.


jeep

Derived from GP, initialism of general-purpose. Noun from General Purpose Vehicle (military light utility truck).

(military) Pertaining to utility or general purpose.


artilleryman

(military) A soldier enlisted in an artillery unit or who uses artillery.


buffer zone

(military) A neutral area that is located between hostile forces, and is designed to prevent hostilities.


RM

en-noun

RM (countable and uncountable, plural RMs)

(military) Initialism of radio material.


wigwag

From wig (“to wag, waggle”) + wag (“to swing”). The noun is derived from the verb.

com

Boy Scouts and others interested in visual signaling can practice indoors with this miniature wigwag sender.

1932 August, Hubert E. Mishler, “Tiny Wigwag Machine Teaches Signaling with Flag”, in Raymond J. Brown, editor, Popular Science Monthly, volume 121, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 71:

(US, military, historical) A signal sent by waving a flag to and fro.


wigwag

en-verb

wigwag (third-person singular simple present wigwags, present participle wigwagging, simple past and past participle wigwagged)

wigwags (present singular third-person)
wigwagging (participle present)
wigwagged (participle past)
wigwagged (past)
wig-wag (alternative)

He had no prearranged signals for explaining the presence of the two Americans, but when the planes returned to check his messages, he wigwagged: "No Japanese. No signs," and then led Krickel and his daughter to where they could be clearly seen. The lead plane dipped its wings alterately and flew back toward Dutch Harbor.

1988, James A[lbert] Michener, “The Railbelt”, in Alaska: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Dial Press Trade Paperbacks, 2014, →ISBN, page 905:

The steam whistle emitted three long blasts as the Carondelet headed into the stream, along with the echoing of sound from the signal cannon. As they passed each of the troop ships, a mighty cheer rose from the men. [General William Tecumseh] Sherman had a signalman wigwag a message of good luck and Godspeed to each.

2007, Nelson A. Reed, “April 15, 1866: The Mississippi”, in With Your Shield Shining: A Novel of the Second Civil War 1863–1866, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN:

(US, military, historical) To send a signal by waving a flag to and fro.


wildcatter

Audio (US)

Roy Weatherby began his career in the firearms industry as a “wildcatter”, developing his revolutionary ideas about rifle cartridge performance and design.

a. 2005, “Ammunition”, in Weatherby, archived from the original on 2005-02-15:

(firearms) A person who makes wildcat cartridges and the guns that use them.


MOD

en-noun

MOD (countable and uncountable, plural MODs)

(military, by extension) Initialism of ministry of defense. (not retricted to the British War Ministry)


Legionnaire

(US, military) A member of the American Legion.

legionella

Legionnaires' disease, Legionnaires', legionellosis


workup

workup (countable and uncountable, plural workups)

(military) A period of training or preparation, typically for a specific operation.


commissioned officer

commissioned officer (plural commissioned officers)

(military) An officer who derives authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, holds a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position.

Offizier

an officer who derives authority directly from a sovereign power


motor pool

A sound truck joined the vehicles on the dock, whose number was growing almost to a full-sized motor pool.

1963, Thomas Pynchon, V., J. B. Lippincott & Co., →LCCN, →OCLC, page 31:

Head through the Motor Pool to get to the Ops Center.

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, spoken by Avery Johnson (David Scully), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Crow's Nest:

(US, military) A fleet of vehicles for use by a military installation; the department that maintains them


banyan

banyans (plural)
banian (alternative)
bannian (alternative)

From Portuguese baniano, from Arabic بَنِيَان (baniyān), from Gujarati વાણિયો (vāṇiyo, “merchant”), from Sanskrit वाणिज (vāṇijá), from earlier वणिज् (vaṇíj, “merchant, trader”). The name appears to have been first bestowed popularly on a famous tree of this species growing near Bandar Abbas, under which the Bannians, or Hindu traders settled at that port, had built a little pagoda. Doublet of bunnia.

Banyan in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

(British, naval slang, dated) A camping excursion on shore, to give a ship's crew a break from shipboard routine.


beachhead

beachheads (plural)
beach head (alternative)
beach-head (alternative)

(military) An area of hostile territory (especially on a beach) that, when captured, serves for the continuous landing (or movement into position) of further troops and material


foilist

(fencing) A fencer who fights with a foil.


booby trap

(military) An antipersonnel device deliberately hidden or disguised as a harmless object.


capstone

en-verb

capstone (third-person singular simple present capstones, present participle capstoning, simple past and past participle capstoned)

capstones (present singular third-person)
capstoning (participle present)
capstoned (participle past)
capstoned (past)

From Middle English capston; equivalent to cap + stone.

“Capstoned” units are now able to train and plan in peacetime with the command with which they will fight in wartime.

1981, Army Reserve Magazine, volumes 27-28, page 24:

(transitive, US, military, informal) To train in the Capstone Military Leadership Program.


crossfire

en-noun

crossfire (countable and uncountable, plural crossfires)

/ˈkɹɔːsfaɪɹ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-crossfire.wav

(military) An arrangement of two or more weapons so each can fire diagonally at something in front of a line between them.


widow-maker

widow-makers (plural)
widow maker (alternative)
widowmaker (alternative)

From widow + maker. For sense 4, compare German Witwenmacher.

(military, slang) The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.


pusher

‘You should a seed some o' the pushers. Girls o' seventeen painted worse nor any Gerties I'd ever knowed.’

1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 208:


mutual assured destruction

mutual assured destruction (uncountable)

A pun on "assured destruction" ("a highly reliable ability to inflict unacceptable damage ... even after absorbing a surprise first strike"), a term used in discussions of American nuclear strategy in the 1960s. Perhaps coined by Donald Brennan, conservative defense analyst and a public critic of the policy.

mutually assured destruction (alternative)

(politics, public policy, military) The threat of massive retaliation using nuclear weapons should a potential enemy use them first, both sides being annihilated in the event of war.

destrucción mutua / mutual / recíproca asegurada


dicky

dickies (plural)
dickey (alternative)
dickie (alternative)

→ Urdu: ڈِکّی (ḍikkī), ڈِگّی (ḍiggī)

→ Pashto: ډِګّۍ (ḍiggay)

From dick + -y (diminutive suffix).
* In cover/apron senses: perhaps from English dialect dick (“leather apron”) + -y; perhaps from Dutch dek (“a cover”).


11 Bang-Bang

* Slang from the MOS designation "11B" (pronounced "11 Bravo").

(US, military slang, derogatory) An infantryman.


40 mike-mike

From Mike (“the letter M in the ICAO spelling alphabet”).

(US Army and Marines, military, slang) Any weapon firing a 40mm grenade. Often specifically the M203 grenade launcher, mounted underneath an M-16 or its variant. In the Marine Corps, often the Mark-19 Automatic 40mm Grenade Launcher.


A-gang

(US, naval slang) Auxiliary division onboard a ship or submarine. Responsible for sanitary, heating/AC, emergency diesels, hydraulics, high pressure air, low pressure air, oxygen generating equipment, potable water, hatch maintenance, and assorted systems.


admin vortex

admin vortex (plural admin vortexes or admin vortices)

admin vortexes (plural)
admin vortices (plural)

(British Army military slang) A disorganized soldier.


ray gun

Keep your 'lectric eye on me babe / Put your ray gun to my head

1972, “Moonage Daydream”, in The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, performed by David Bowie:

(science fiction, weaponry) A weapon that shoots harmful rays.


cut and run

en-verb

cut and run (third-person singular simple present cuts and runs, present participle cutting and running, simple past cut and ran, past participle cut and run)

cuts and runs (present singular third-person)
cutting and running (participle present)
cut and ran (past)
cut and run (participle past)

They held on as long as they could, but when the heavy artillery fire started, they had to cut and run.

The President laid out the scenario we face if the United States decides to cut and run.

Mr Blair promised that the UK would not "cut and run". "Don't be under any doubts at all, British troops remain until the job is done and that job is moving up the Iraqi capabilities so that, for example, in Basra Iraqi forces can carry out the security work."

2006 December 18, Patrick Wintour, quoting Tony Blair, “UK will not cut and run in fight for democracy, troops told”, in The Guardian:

(military) To abandon a position as quickly as possible.


right of way

en-noun

right of way (countable and uncountable, plural rights of way or right of ways)

rights of way (plural)
right of ways (plural)
right-of-way (alternative)
ROW (alternative)

In foil the important thing is to be sure you have the right of way. You gain right of way by starting the attack first or beating the blade last.

2002, Elaine Cheris, Fencing: Steps to Success, →ISBN, page 63:

(fencing, uncountable) The priority granted to the first person to properly execute an attack.


Chindit

Derived from the mythological Chinte, half lion and half eagle.

(historical, military) A member of an allied commando unit operating behind enemy lines in northern Burma during World War II.


infighting

infighting (countable and uncountable, plural infightings)

From in- + fighting. Compare Middle English infighten (“to attack”), Old English infiht (“infighting”).

Tate predicted that Wills, famed for infighting, would have to change his tactics against Firpo to avoid being knocked "very loose."

1924 September 1, “Abdication”, in Time:

His left jab pecked at McTigue's face, and at infighting he matched the champion on even terms.

1955 March 28, Charles Lesemann, “Ruckus in Georgia”, in Sports Illustrated:

(boxing) Fighting with one's opponent closer than arm's length.

lähiottelu

boxing: fighting with the opponent close


dog biscuit

(military, colloquial) A hard, dry biscuit issued as part of food rations in the field.


tasking

Action officers receive taskings in many ways. A top boss will grab you in the hall and tell you to do something, some key official will give you multiple taskings right in the middle of your briefing, and you will pick up taskings in staff meetings […]

2007, Perry M. Smith, Daniel M. Gerstein, Assignment: Pentagon: How to Excel in a Bureaucracy:

(military, law enforcement) A task; an assigned item of work.


supermassive

en-adj

supermassive (comparative more supermassive, superlative most supermassive)

more supermassive (comparative)
most supermassive (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-supermassive.wav

supermassive SVBIED

supermassive black hole

(especially military, engineering, sciences) Extremely massive; of extraordinary mass.


brigadier

Borrowed from French brigadier. Equivalent to brigade + -ier.

(military) An army rank; an officer commanding a brigade.

(military, UK) A field officer of the highest grade, below general officers, NATO grade O7.


picker

From Middle English pikere, pykare, equivalent to pick + -er.

(military) A priming wire for cleaning the vent, in ordnance.


listening post

(military) A position established for the purpose of detecting the enemy's movements by means of listening.

監聽哨 /监听哨

position to detect enemy's movements by listening


Sherwood Forest

/ˈʃɝwʊd ˈfɔɹɪst/

/ˈʃɜːwʊd ˈfɒɹɪst/

Here crewmen are standing by in "Sherwood Forest" — as the missile compartment is named […]

1964, Adventure in Partnership: The Story of Polaris, page 34:

Fifteen other launcher tubes — Polaris submarines have 16 in the midships "Sherwood Forest" compartment […]

1966, Flight International, volume 90, page 36:

(military, slang) The banks of Polaris missile tubes on a submarine.


horse

en-noun

horse (countable and uncountable, plural horses)

horses (plural)
hoss (alternative pronunciation-spelling regional)
hawss (alternative pronunciation-spelling regional)

Sranan Tongo: asi

→ Maori: hōiho

→ Quiripi: hosses (from the plural horses)

From Middle English horse, hors, from Old English hors (“horse”), from Proto-West Germanic *hors, *hross, from Proto-Germanic *hrussą (“horse”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (“vehicle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Doublet of car and carrus. Cognate with North Frisian hors (“horse”), West Frisian hoars (“horse”), Dutch ros, hors (“horse”), German Ross (“horse”), Danish hors (“horse”), Swedish russ, hors (“horse”), Icelandic hross, hors (“horse”).

a camel is a horse designed by a committee

a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse

close the barn door after the horse has bolted

close the stable door after the horse has been stolen

close the stable door after the horse has bolted

lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen

lock the stable door after the horse has bolted

shut the stable door after the horse has bolted

you can't put the shit back in the horse

zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse

Also Horse harness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

See Horse-drawn vehicles on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Note: Many of these were adapted into and/or gave their names to motor vehicle types

with the horse-drawn originals often being forgotten.

We should place two units of horse and one of foot on this side of the field.

Equus ferus caballus
Equus ferus caballus#Translingual

A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work.

(military, sometimes uncountable) Cavalry soldiers (sometimes capitalized when referring to an official category).


section 8

section 8 (countable and uncountable, plural section 8s)

By the time got out of the service I was tuly ^([sic]) a broken man. The constant threat of the stockade or a section eight (undesireable discharge for being gay) drove me to the verge of insanity.

1983 December 31, James L. Zipper, “Happy To Be Me”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 13:

(US, military) Discharge from the United States military for reason of being mentally unfit for service.


toehold

toeholds (plural)
toe-hold (alternative)
toe hold (alternative)

(wrestling) A hold in which the aggressor bends back the opponent's foot.


tige

Borrowed from French tige (“stem”), from Latin tibia (“shin bone, leg”). Doublet of tibia.

(firearms, historical) A steel pin in early rifles.


hooah

Platoon Leader: Listen up, gentlemen - tomorrow's a rest and refit day, hooah?

Soldiers: Hooah!

(US, military) The official yell of the US Army.


stovepipe

stovepipes (plural)
stove-pipe (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-stovepipe.wav

From stove + pipe. The firearms sense is due to the trapped cartridge case resembling a stovepipe of the stove sense.

(firearms) A type of malfunction affecting breechloading firearms, where a spent cartridge casing fails to eject completely, instead becoming stuck in the firearm's ejection port, usually oriented vertically or nearly so.

(military slang, World War I– World War II) A trench mortar such as the Stokes mortar.


stovepipe

en-verb

stovepipe (third-person singular simple present stovepipes, present participle stovepiping, simple past and past participle stovepiped)

stovepipes (present singular third-person)
stovepiping (participle present)
stovepiped (participle past)
stovepiped (past)
stove-pipe (alternative)

(intransitive, firearms) Of a cartridge case, to become wedged vertically in the ejection port of a breechloading firearm, rather than ejecting completely from the weapon.


bluenose

That summer the Clipper detoured north on its way to Norway so that cadets could be initiated as bluenoses. She passed between the Shetland and Orkney islands on her way to cross the Arctic Circle at Greenwich.

2005, Stephen J. Curley, Aggies By The Sea: Texas A & M University At Galveston, page 213:

(US, naval slang) A person who has crossed the Arctic Circle.


five-and-dime

five-and-dimes (plural)
five and dime (alternative)
5 & dime (alternative)

Admiral Fitzwallace: A three hour patrol of the no-fly with the five-and-dime.

2000, Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing, season 1, episode 22 “What Kind of Day Has It Been”

(US, military, slang) The 5th Battalion 10th Marines, a US artillery battalion.


FIBUA

(military, British, Canada) Acronym of fighting in built-up areas.


Catalina

Catalina
Consolidated PBY Catalina
en:Santa Catalina Island (California)

(aviation, historical, military) A twin-engined amphibious aircraft used during the Second World War.


schoolie

schoolies (plural)
schooly (alternative)
skoolie (alternative)

From school + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).

Arbroath, being a training station for young naval airmen, also housed several ‘schoolies’ (education officers), four of whom lived in an adjacent building to mine. I quickly struck up a close friendship with two of the schoolies, Ron Horner and Vivian Price.

2008, John H. Dunning, Seasons of a Scholar: Some Personal Reflections of an International Business Economist, page 46:


survivable

en-adj

survivable (comparative more survivable, superlative most survivable)

more survivable (comparative)
most survivable (superlative)

In order for a weapon system to be an effective deterrent it must be highly survivable. Weapon systems based in the world's ocean waters are the most survivable systems.

1972, Naval Engineers Journal, volume 84, page 274:

As Desert Storm demonstrated, heavily defended targets can be successfully attacked by cruise missiles and a limited number of highly capable and survivable aircraft, leaving other targets to be attacked by less survivable aircraft. A recent CNA study reinforced this point.

1995, United States. General Accounting Office, Cruise Missiles: Proven Capability Should Affect Aircraft and Force Structure Requirements : Report to Congressional Committees, page 48:

“I think that what we found is that our command and control needs to be more survivable,” said Col. Robert S. McChrystal, commander of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which is based in Vilseck, Germany, near the Czech border.

2024 April 24, Helene Cooper, quoting Robert S. McChrystal, “NATO Puts on a Show of Force in the Shadow of Russia’s War”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(military) Capable of surviving an attack, especially a nuclear strike.


METT-TC

(US, military, mnemonic) Initialism of mission, enemy, terrain, troops available, time, and civilian considerations. Used by the United States military to help commanders remember the considerations in the planning of any operation.


attitude indicator

en-noun

attitude indicator (plural attitude indicators)

(aviation, UK, military) An instrument that displays attitude of an aircraft in pitch and roll.


SDF

Japan's initial contribution to Kabul resembled “checkbook diplomacy plus” with a pledge of ODA plus the dispatch of the Maritime SDF to the Indian Ocean. These steps appeared sufficient.

2014, Dennis T. Yasutomo, Japan's Civil-Military Diplomacy: The Banks of the Rubicon, Routledge, →ISBN:

The reorientation of the SDFs operational posture has gone hand in hand with a sustained legislative effort to alter the legal underpinnings of Japan's security policy.

2017, Robert S. Ross, Øystein Tunsjø, editors, Strategic Adjustment and the Rise of China, Cornell University Press, →ISBN:

(military) Initialism of (Japanese) Self-Defence Force(s).

Syrian Democratic Forces
w:Syrian Democratic Forces

(military) Initialism of Syrian Democratic Forces.


jankers

(British military slang) A form of military punishment which involves being confined to barracks, performing tedious and often pointless tasks, and being subjected to frequent uniform inspections.

(British military slang) Defaulters' drill.


CAG

CAG (countable and uncountable, plural CAGs)

(military, aviation, nautical) Initialism of commander of the air group.


bantamweight

bantamweight (countable and uncountable, plural bantamweights)

(boxing, uncountable) A weight class in boxing and other sports, intermediate between flyweight and featherweight. In boxing it ranges from 112 to 118 pounds (51 to 54 kg).


Purple Heart

(chiefly US, military) A US military decoration awarded in the name of the President of the United States to those wounded or killed while serving on or after 5 April 1917.


crap out

en-verb

crap out (third-person singular simple present craps out, present participle crapping out, simple past and past participle crapped out)

craps out (present singular third-person)
crapping out (participle present)
crapped out (participle past)
crapped out (past)

So, recruits fought sleep and slept in the hot classrooms while DIs caught up on their sleep by crapping out on their duty rack in full uniform.

2002, Wesley L. Fox, Marine Rifleman: Forty-three Years in the Corps, page 104:

He planned on being done by the early afternoon and then crapping out for the rest of the day.

2011, Guy Lennon, Knights of the State Department:

(US, military, slang, intransitive) To idle or mess around.


fogy

(US, military, dated, slang) Extra pay granted to officers for length of service.


SEAL

(military) Short for Navy SEAL (“member of the Sea, Air, Land unit”).


short-timer

Almost every Marine in Viet Nam carries a short-timer’s calendar of his tour of duty—the usual 365 days—plus a bonus of 20 days for being a Marine.

1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 45:

(US, military slang, historical) A soldier during the Vietnam War who had less than two months to serve.

(military) A person who would not be required to do a difficult or dangerous task.


kickboxer

(martial arts) One who practices the martial art of kickboxing.


picket

en-noun

picket (countable and uncountable, plural pickets)

From French piquet, from piquer (“to pierce”).

So confident was he that he ignored the warning of his two British advisers to post pickets to watch the river, and even withdrew those they had placed there.

1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 59:

(military) One of the soldiers or troops placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance; or any unit (for example, an aircraft or ship) performing a similar function.


reclama

Subject: DAWN Cancellation Reclama

(US, military) A request made to the authority to reconsider its decision or action. It is normally sent through official channels, i.e. through the chain of command.


NLEC

(US, military) Initialism of no longer enemy combatant.


go the distance

en-verb

go the distance (third-person singular simple present goes the distance, present participle going the distance, simple past went the distance, past participle gone the distance)

goes the distance (present singular third-person)
going the distance (participle present)
went the distance (past)
gone the distance (participle past)

"In a way it's like the quality of muscle and heart that enables some prizefighters to go the distance—twenty, thirty, forty rounds, say," Dick concurred.

1915, Jack London, chapter 20, in The Little Lady of the Big House:

It really don't matter if this guy opens my head, even, cause I all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, seein' that bell ring and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood.

1976 November 21, Rocky, spoken by Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone):

(boxing) To participate in a boxing match for its maximum number of rounds.


outbox

outbox (third-person singular simple present outboxes, present participle outboxing, simple past and past participle outboxed)

outboxes (present singular third-person)
outboxing (participle present)
outboxed (participle past)
outboxed (past)

(boxing, transitive) To box better than.


baptism of fire

en-noun

baptism of fire (plural baptisms of fire)

baptisms of fire (plural)
baptism by fire (alternative)

Derived from English translations of the New Testament, namely the Gospels of Matthew (3:11) and of Luke (3:16); from Ancient Greek through Latin; presumably from Aramaic.

Having to deal with a bomb scare on his first day was a real baptism of fire for John.

She sat down for four exclusive interviews over the course of several weeks to reflect on her first 100 days in the job. It has been a baptism of fire by many accounts, including hers.

2023 September 30, Hannah Murphy, “The wildest job in Silicon Valley”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 17:

(figuratively, military) The first experience of a severe ordeal, especially a first experience of military combat


skimmer

(naval) A sailor in the surface forces, as opposed to a submariner.


milch cow

From Middle English melche cow, mylche cowe.

(military, slang) A German WWII submarine designed to carry large cargoes of supplies and transfer them to other submarines.


railhead

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-railhead.wav

(military) An area of hostile territory at the end of a rail line that, when captured, serves for the continuous movement into position of further troops and materiel.


fragging

→ Korean: 프래깅 (peuraeging)

Present participle of frag, from a clipping of fragmentation grenade, because those who committed fragging during the Vietnam War threw fragmentation grenades at their superior officers.

Fraggings—the intentional killings of officers by their own troops—were already occurring.

2004, Martin Torgoff, “Next Stop is Vietnam”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 175:

(US military slang) The premeditated murder of one's superior officer in a military unit


reload

en-verb

reload (third-person singular simple present reloads, present participle reloading, simple past and past participle reloaded)

reloads (present singular third-person)
reloading (participle present)
reloaded (participle past)
reloaded (past)

(firearms) To load a gun again; or recharge a used cartridge.


reload

(firearms) An ammunition cartridge prepared from previously fired ammunition.


fibbing

And so did Nick, whom sometimes there would come on / A sort of fear his spouse might knock his head off, / Demolish half his teeth, or drive a rib in, / She shone so much in 'facers' and in 'fibbing.'

15th round. Chancery. Fibbing. Biggs makes dreadful work with his left. Break away. Rally. Biggs down. Betting still six to four on the gown-boy.

1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Fight at Slaughter House”, in Men's Wives, page 17:

(archaic, boxing) Repeatedly striking an opponent's head while holding them in a headlock; a pummelling; a drubbing; a beating.


en garde

(fencing) Used to warn one's opponent to take a defensive position prior to a fight.


en garde

(fencing) Ellipsis of en garde position; the start position in fencing.


reveille

en-noun

reveille (countable and uncountable, plural reveilles)

From French réveillez, imperative form of réveiller (“to wake”) .

A bugler and his brisk reveille woke them most mornings.

2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 53:

(military) The sounding of a bugle or drum early in the morning to awaken soldiers.

ցայգանվագ

the sounding of a bugle or drum early in the morning to awaken soldiers