soldiers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of soldier.

   Hundreds of soldiers gathered at the border before sunrise.

   The general thanked the soldiers for their service after the campaign.

   Note

   A plural that carries every meaning of the singular, and the company it keeps decides which one is meant. Beside officers, soldiers means the enlisted ranks. In a gang or the mafia, it means the low-ranking members who do the fighting. Strictly the word belongs to ground forces, so calling sailors or air crews soldiers is a loose, nonstandard stretch. The same spelling also serves the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of soldier.

   The old farmer soldiers on through one drought after another.

   Despite the criticism, she soldiers ahead with the project.

   Note

   Here the verb shows a strange double life. Followed by on or ahead, it means pressing forward through hardship: she soldiers on. Used of work, the same verb can mean the opposite: deliberately going as slowly as one can without being punished. Both uses are intransitive. A direct object therefore signals something else entirely, a slang use for riding another person's horse without permission.

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