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A troop of fifty soldiers in the Spartan army; -- called also pentecostys. Jowett (Thucyd. ).

A foot soldier; a policeman; also, an office attendant; a messenger. [India]

A soldier sent on a forlorn hope. Shak.

ific service. The pillage of a place taken by storm was regarded as the perquisite of the soldiers. Prescott. The best perquisites of a place are the advantages it gaves a man of doing good. Addison.

A soldier belonging to a phalanx. [Obs.]

A foot soldier's weapon, consisting of a long wooden shaft or staff, with a pointed steel head. It is now superseded by the bayonet.

A soldier armed with a pike. Knolles.

e; esp., a pad or cushion put on behind a man's saddle, on which a woman may ride. His [a soldier's] shank pillion without stirrups. Spenser.

A soldier detailed or employed to form roads, dig trenches, and make bridges, as an army advances.

aking tobacco pipes and various kinds of earthenware, in scouring cloth, and in cleansing soldiers' equipments.

To whiten or clean with pipe clay, as a soldier's accouterments.

The officer or soldier who simply turns in his place whike the company or line moves around him in wheeling; -- called also pivot man. Pivot bridge, a form of drawbridge in which one span, called the pivot span, turns about a central vertical axis. -- Pivot gun, a gun mounted on a pivot or revolving carriage, so as to…

A field of battle. [Obs.] Arbuthnot. Lead forth my soldiers to the plain. Shak.

Formerly, a body of men who fired together; also, a small square body of soldiers to strengthen the angles of a hollow square.

; later, an ax or hatchet with a short handle, and a head variously patterned; -- used by soldiers, and also by sailors in boarding a vessel.

Military police, the body of soldiers detailed to preserve civil order and attend to sanitary arrangements in a camp or garrison.

casting or recording of the votes of registered electors; as, the close of the poll. All soldiers quartered in place are to remove . . . and not to return till one day after the poll is ended. Blackstone.

A tuft or ball of wool, or the like, sometimes worn by soldiers on the front of the hat, instead of a feather.

sessment or tax, as in an English parish, for the relief or support of the poor. -- Poor soldier (Zoöl.), the friar bird. -- The poor, those who are destitute of property; the indigent; the needy. In a legal sense, those who depend on charity or maintenance by the public. "I have observed the more public provisions a…

A military station; the place at which a soldier or a body of troops is stationed; also, the troops at such a station.