1. [n]  a wingless sterile ant or termite having a large head and powerful jaws adapted for defending the colony
2. [n]  an enlisted man or woman who serves in an army; "the soldiers stood at attention"
3. [v]  serve as a soldier in the military

Soldier
Poet June Jordan`s sunny and inspiring memoir of her childhood begins in Harlem, where she was born in 1936 to West Indian immigrant parents, and proceeds to Brooklyn, where the family moved a few years later.

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

2. \Sol"dier\, v. i.
   1. To serve as a soldier.
   2. To make a pretense of doing something, or of performing
      any task. [Colloq.U.S.]
   Note: In this sense the vulgar pronounciation (s[=o]"j[~e]r)
         is jocosely preserved.
               It needs an opera glass to discover whether the
               leaders are pulling, or only soldiering. --C. D.
                                                  Warner.