Volunteer definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (30)

American Heritage Dictionary (9)

noun A person who performs or offers to perform a service voluntarily: an information booth staffed by volunteers; hospital volunteers.
noun Law A person who renders aid, performs a service, or assumes an obligation voluntarily.
noun Law A person who holds property under a deed made without consideration.

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Century Dictionary (8)

A person who enters into any service of his own free will. He has had Compassion upon Lovers, and generously engag'd a Volunteer in this Action, for our Service. Congreve, Way of the World, v. 14.
A person who enters military service of his own free will, and not by constraint or compulsion; one who offers to serve, and generally receives some consideration or privileges on that account; in the United States, especially during the civil war, a soldier of a body other than the regular army, but practically governed by the same laws when in service. In Great Britain the government provides the various bodies of volunteers, or citizen-soldiery, with competent instructors, arms, and a part of their ammunition, besides allowing to each corps certain grants proportioned to the number of efficient members, etc. A British volunteer can resign on giving a fortnight's notice, except in a crisis of imminent danger to the country. In the United States the army of volunteers comprises, to all intents and purposes—(1) the regular unpaid forces of State militia which, when called into the actual service of the United States, receive pay from the government, and are subject to the rules and articles of war, and (2) that class of troops which may from time to time be raised by Congress on occasions of national emergency. Such troops are properly United States troops, and the method of officering them is designated by Congress. At the very outset of the campaign, the inexperience of the Federal volunteers was made evident, even more on the march than on the battle-field. Comte de Paris, Civil War in America (trans.), I. 193. Volunteers often complain that they are not taken seriously enough…. Nor must they ever cease complaining until they have been thoroughly organized for whatever their duties are to be, and until those duties are perfectly clear to themselves and the country at large. Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XLIII. 615.
In law, one who claims the benefit of a contract or conveyance although no consideration proceeded from him nor from any one in whose place he stands.

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Examples (50)

The bowls of strawberries had been reduced by half, and a volunteer was adding to the punch. — The Tree of Death
For those who want to donate clean items in good shape, a volunteer is available to come pick up.
Clesceri says the best part about being a volunteer is to be able to help people. — East Valley Tribune - Today's Top Stories
Vandalism to Conservapedia wouldn't fall into this category because it doesn't incur damage involving monetary cost to a protected computer as any such vandalism can be repaired by a volunteer, thereby incurring no cost as the volunteer isn't charging to repair the vandalism. — Conservapedia - Recent changes [en]
Turns out the volunteer was a professional Opera singer. — Blog of a Bookslut

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militia · infantry · civilian · recruit · veteran · mercenary · marine · troop · worker · police · assistant · resident

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volunteer: volunteers · volunteered · volunteering

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Obsolete French voluntaire, from Old French, voluntary, from Latin voluntārius; see voluntary.

Century Dictionary (2)

from French voluntaire, now volontaire = Spanish Portuguese Italian voluntario, from Latin voluntarius, voluntary: see voluntary.
from volunteer, n.

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