civilian Definition
ci·vil·ian (sə vil′yən)
noun
- any person not an active member of the armed forces or of an official force having police power
- Archaic a specialist in civil or Roman law
Etymology: ME < OFr civilien < L civilis, civil
adjective
of or for civilians; nonmilitary
civilian Synonyms
civilian
modif.
civilian Synonyms
civilian Usage Examples
Converse of object
- kill: Then there are the innocent civilians killed in Iraq.
- maim: Bombs kills or maims civilians ( including women and children ) in Iraq and cannot therefore ask Israel for a cease fire in Lebanon.
- terrorize: To Makarios's right stood the right wing guerrilla leader George Grivas, who spent more time terrorizing Turkish civilians than fighting the British.
- displace: Sources of information include local authorities, local civilians, and displaced civilians.
- murder: People followed Hitler thinking his way was right, even to the point of murdering Jewish civilians.
- protect: The international community is obviously neither able nor willing to protect Bosnian civilians.
Preposition: on
side: Thankfully we managed to talk to them and say that we would give out the relief supplies to civilians on both sides.
Adjective modifier
- innocent: The killing of innocent civilians is the issue here.
- unarmed: To suppress the revolt, Kolchak ordered soldiers to open fire, killing over 300 unarmed civilians.
- Lebanese: Up to seven Israeli soldiers and two Lebanese civilians were killed in the cross-border fighting, according to reports.
- Palestinian: Over the past 15 months, Israel has killed more than 900 Palestinian civilians, 25 percent of them under the age of 18.
- Iraqi: Saddam Hussein could have been removed from power without bombing Iraqi civilians surely?
- Serb: Contributing to the flight of Serbs from Kosovo are reports of violence against Serb civilians.
Modifies a noun
- casualty: Debt of Honor Register provides the names of Second World War civilian casualties.
- population: Being sure the civilian population is not attacked is key.
- internee: Many of the Far East prisoners were civilian internees and their story should also be told and remembered.
- personnel: Pensions payable after normal retirement age are met by the PCSPS for civilian personnel.
- clothes: Most of them wore civilian clothes, some of them SS uniform.
- airliner: The Nimrod entered service in 1969 as the MR 1 Variant, derived from the civilian airliner; the Comet.
Noun used with modifier
murder: In 1935 I would never have believed Zionists would murder civilians - they discriminated against the Arabs, that's all.
Browse dictionary entries near civilian
- ‹ civil year
- ‹ civil war
- ‹ civil union
- ‹ civil service
- ‹ civil servant
- ‹ Civil Rights Act
- ‹ civil rights
- ‹ civil right
- ‹ civil procedure
- ‹ civil marriage
- civilianize ›
- civility ›
- civilization ›
- civilize ›
- civilized ›
- civilly ›
- civvies ›
- CJ ›
- ck ›
- cl ›

