Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rigid military disciplinarian.
- n. One who demands absolute adherence to forms and rules.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In ornithology, same as martin, 1.
- n. Nautical, the name formerly given to a small line fastened to the leech of a sail to bring it close to the yard when the sail is furled. Also martnet.
- n. Some kind of water-mill. Cath. Anglicum, p. 229.—2. A military engine of the middle ages.
- n. A rigid disciplinarian, especially in the army or navy; a stickler for routine or regularity in small details.
Wiktionary
- n. A strict disciplinarian
- n. Anyone who lays stress on a rigid adherence to the details of discipline, or to forms and fixed methods or rules.
- n. The swallow-species martin.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. In military language, a strict disciplinarian; in general, one who lays stress on a rigid adherence to the details of discipline, or to forms and fixed methods.
- n. The martin.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone who demands exact conformity to rules and forms
Etymologies
- After Jean Martinet (died 1672), French army officer.
Examples
““In an extended sense, a martinet is any person for whom a strict adherence to rules and etiquette is paramount: martinets often use etiquette and other rules as an excuse to trump ethics, to the point that etiquette loses its ethical ground.” joe from Lowell says:”
Matthew Yglesias » Obstructionism from Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) Boosting Lord’s Resistance Army
“He became what he called the martinet, someone who belittled and mocked the officers that he initially treated as his friends.”
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842
“He was not what West Pointers would describe as a martinet.”
“Added to the punctilio of the martinet was the rigor of the moralist.”
“Iraqis, he says, are once again looking for the kind of martinet he knew as a boy.”
“Calvin, a "martinet", or oppidan, in the Collèege de la”
“3. The subtle and not so subtle innuendoes about the personal character and actions of Father Finegan: in particular in relation to the use of Church funds (vestments, no published accounts); his so called "martinet" charater (the issuing of "rules" regarding silence in Church).”
“a "martinet," if you know what that means; and my dear mother, who by herself, perhaps, would have been almost too gentle to keep all her family in good order, was firm as a rock where any wish of _his_ was concerned.”
“An explosive martinet on the set, but the result was 'Elmer Gantry,' 'In Cold Blood' and 'The Professionals.”
“On the movie set, Brooks was an explosive martinet.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘martinet’.
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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 4084 more...
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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Siamese-Twin Words
Idea from Will Shortz's NPR puzzle feature. Two words that share a common letter (end of first word and start of second word) and forming a larger word, e.g., mill and lion = mil-l-ion. Variants ...
cordial, portable, trillion, retort, preposition, palace, domesticity, passage, shallow, electorate, bootstrap, turkey and 9 more...
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Personality
these words are more than mere descriptions of a person's behavior.
They entail in themselves the power to accurately define an individual.martinet, machiavellian, convivial, gregarious, insouciant, nonchalant, haggler, woebegone, thievish, haranguer, yenta, refractory and 1 more...
seecoy Take the Army; show without disguise its chiefs as martinets, its discipline as narrow-minded and unfair, and into this stupid tyranny immerse an average human being, fallible but likeable, the archetype of the spectator. And then, at the last moment, turn over the magical hat, and pull out of it the image of an army, flags flying, triumphant, bewitching, to which, like Sganarelle's wife, one cannot but be faithful although beaten (From here to eternity).
Roland Barthes, Mythologies (Operation Margarine) Dec 3, 2010