Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To force into military service.
- v. To seize for military use; confiscate.
- v. To take arbitrarily or by force. See Synonyms at appropriate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To order (the enrolled militia) into active military service: originally with reference to the late Dutch republics of South Africa, which were charged with forcing aliens also into the military service.
- To seize private property for military or other public use.
- To seize public or private property for private use, under color of military necessity or right; steal from a helpless victim.
- n. The act of commandeering.
Wiktionary
- v. To seize for military use.
- v. To force into military service.
- v. To take arbitrarily or by force.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. (Mil.) To compel to perform military service; to seize for military purposes; -- orig. used of the Boers.
- v. colloq. To take arbitrary or forcible possession of.
WordNet 3.0
- v. take arbitrarily or by force
Etymologies
- Afrikaans kommandeer, from French commander, to command, from Old French comander; see command. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In February, the Achenbaums sued Credit Suisse's Column Financial unit for wrongful termination in Miami-Dade County circuit court, alleging among other things that Column took steps to "commandeer" the hotel, replacing them with a hotel operator whose inexperience will "inevitably result in inferior services.”
“But neither can the federal government force California to keep similar drug laws on its own books, nor to "commandeer" state agencies to enforce federal drug laws.”
The Huffington Post: David Borden: What's Up With Liberals Against Marijuana Legalization?
“So, can local governments "commandeer" the time of private citizens for jury duty?”
“Once he reached the manor, he would see Mero, and "commandeer" him to replace his sick servant.”
“The ground was hard, and it got very cold about 2 A.M. I could hear the sergeant-major snoring comfortably on the straw palliasse he had managed to "commandeer" for himself.”
“For example, the Court has invalidated laws that regulate criminal activity with no national repercussions, and laws that "commandeer" state governments.”
“The police would do things such as commandeer taxis for themselves while forcing other passengers into the street, they said.”
“The Nevada Appeal in Carson City, Nev., reported Thursday that the FBI told the governors of all 50 states they would be receiving letters from a group warning them that if they don't resign, group members will "commandeer" their offices.”
“NEW YORK - A self-described celebrity stalker obsessed with Ivanka Trump threatened to kill himself in her jewelry store and "commandeer" her husband's newspaper in e-mail and Twitter messages to the couple, prosecutors said Thursday.”
“A self-described celebrity stalker obsessed with Ivanka Trump threatened to kill himself in her jewelry store and "commandeer" her husband's newspaper in email and Twitter messages to the couple, prosecutors said.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘commandeer’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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GRE
GRE words from Princeton Review guide, ETS GRE Book from 2010 (for revised test), New Yorker/NY Times articles.
sycophant, obsequious, volubility, equanimity, enervate, effrontery, impertinent, platitude, impudence, quiescent, propitiate, equivocate and 124 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Words
My list of words.
veritable, facetious, nadir, quixotic, apropos, acquiesce, ostensible, insipid, egregious, inveterate, coax, adroit and 409 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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princeton review
jubilance, obtrusive, maladjusted, prodigious, incredulous, stolidity, inured, stoicism, sidereal, boisterous, etiolated, circumscribed and 90 more...
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vorpal's Words
parabiosis, penumbra, defenestrate, portmanteau, sturm und drang, perspicacious, quixotic, copacetic, obfuscate, inveigle, shadenfreude, cloister and 349 more...
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litigious semantics
ad unguem, abeyance, choleric, contentious, curmudgeonly, churlish, dictatorial, vindictive, dogmatic, truculent, mutinous, refractory and 254 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL C
cabal, cache, cacophony, cadaverous, cadence, cajole, callous, callow, calumny, calvary, camaraderie, canard and 199 more...
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Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
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conglomeration
wherewithal, wan, zoonotic, zoonosis, nebulous, nefarious, nascent, quiescent, quell, undercroft, unwitting, unutterable and 658 more...
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Evin290's Words
puerile, fastidious, blatherskite, folderol, femtosecond, redox, incarnadine, cerulean, genuflection, muslin, multitudinous, miasma and 517 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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cucchiaio's Words
ambidextrous, octogenarian, unanimous, semaphore, luminous, indigenous, epistemological, ravenous, receptacle, petrify, rectify, lepidopterologist and 104 more...
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Of Color
chartreuse, cerise, flaxen, azure, viridescent, sable, mauve, mulberry, violaceous, orchid, lilac, puce and 41 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for commandeer.
anydelirium Will Turner: We're going to steal a ship? That ship?
Jack Sparrow: "Commandeer." We're going to commandeer that ship. Nautical term.
-the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest Feb 18, 2008
anydelirium '(The form for commandeering a genuine NYC garbage truck MAY be 34 pages long, but one day I will think of a reason to fill it out, I swear to you.)' -the book Peeps, by Scott Westerfield Feb 18, 2008