Contextualizebeta

civilian

noun
/sɪˈvɪl.jən/

Etymology

From Middle English cyvylien, from Old French civilien. Equivalent to civil + -ian.

  1. derived from civilien
  2. inherited from cyvylien

Definitions

  1. A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member…

    A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces.

    • An army never can be commanded or controlled by civilians.
    • Three civilians were apprehended by the soldiers and taken away in a military vehicle.

  2. A person who does not belong to a particular group or engage in a particular activity, an…

    A person who does not belong to a particular group or engage in a particular activity, an outsider.

    • I have this vision one day that I'll walk amongst you a regular civilian.
    • The bathroom was for employees only, so civilians weren't allowed to use it.

  3. One skilled in civil law.

    • Ancient civilians and writers upon government.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. A student of civil law at a university or college.

      • although he kept his name in the college books, and changed his commoner gown to that of a civilian, yet he had now, I believe, no thoughts of proceeding to any degree; and seldom resided in college any more

    2. A person not affiliated with a gang.

    3. An employee of the civil service.

    4. Not related to the military, police or other governmental professions.

      • The three detainees were actually army defectors wearing civilian clothing.
      • He worked as a civilian journalist for ten years before being employed by the public broadcaster.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at civilian. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01civilian02active03change04replace05restore06owner07captain08lieutenant09military10civilians

A definitional loop anchored at civilian. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at civilian

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA