Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • proper noun Any white regular soldier of the British army; also, such soldiers collectively; -- said to be fictitious name inserted in the models given to soldiers to guide them in filling out account blanks, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun Generic term for any British soldier.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • All we usually get is a variety called Tommy Atkins, an early twentieth-century military term for a faceless soldier.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • All we usually get is a variety called Tommy Atkins, an early twentieth-century military term for a faceless soldier.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • All we usually get is a variety called Tommy Atkins, an early twentieth-century military term for a faceless soldier.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • I was much struck with the characteristic behaviour of 'Tommy Atkins' to these men; even to the extent of sharing his rations with them, and handing out his 'fags,' which was an act of real self-denial.

    With The Immortal Seventh Division Edmund John Kennedy

  • The air was "Tommy Atkins," and the words ran as follows:

    A Gunner Aboard the "Yankee" Russell Doubleday 1910

  • 'Tommy Atkins' never has been known to be averse to a good fair fight.

    Dave Darrin on Mediterranean Service or, With Dan Dalzell on European Duty 1895

  • Red-coated "Tommy Atkins," stalking in conscious superiority down the streets, or standing guard in front of the barracks, is no doubt chiefly responsible for much of this flourishing state of affairs in Alexandria, and the withdrawal of his peace -- insuring presence could not fail to operate adversely to the city's good.

    Around the World on a Bicycle - Volume II From Teheran To Yokohama Thomas Stevens 1894

  • "Tommy Atkins," I replied, "the clang of the ammunition boot as big as life."

    Tales of the Malayan Coast From Penang to the Philippines Rounsevelle Wildman 1882

  • Does the intelligent reader believe that "Tommy Atkins," with two pairs of socks "and hit a-rainin '," could whip men with twenty-seven pairs each?

    Comic History of the United States Bill Nye 1873

  • We shake our heads, and prate fatuously that "there were giants in those days," ignorant of the thoroughly attested fact, that the average stature of the European races has increased some four inches since the days of the Crusaders, as shown by the fact that the common British soldier of to-day -- Mr. Kipling's renowned "Tommy Atkins," who is looked upon by the classes above him in the social scale as a short, undersized sort of person -- can neither fit his chest and shoulders into their armor, get his hands comfortably on the hilts of their famous two-handed swords, nor even lie down in their coffins.

    Preventable Diseases Woods Hutchinson 1896

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