Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A student at a military school or in a military program training to be an officer.
  • noun A student training to be a police officer.
  • noun A younger son or brother.
  • noun A youngest son.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A young man who, for the sake of the practical experience to be gained, works with the men on a sheep- or cattle-farm without pay.
  • noun A student in engineering or any of the applied sciences who, in completion of his course (or earlier), seeks practical experience by entering the service of some large establishment where the principles be has been studying are applied, and works there for little or no pay.
  • noun One who prostitutes a woman and lives on her earnings as a prostitute while cohabiting with her; also, one who seduces young women and sells them to houses of prostitution.
  • noun An East Indian bird, Æthopyga miles, a species of fire honey-sucker, of the family Nectariniidæ.
  • noun The younger or youngest son.
  • noun Hence One of the younger members, or the youngest member, of any organized association or institution.
  • noun One who carried arms in a regiment as a private, but solely with a view to acquiring military skill preparatory to a commission. His service was voluntary, but he received pay, and was thus distinguished from a volunteer.
  • noun A young man in training for the rank of an officer in the army or navy, or in a military school.

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

  • noun The younger of two brothers; a younger brother or son; the youngest son.
  • noun A gentleman who carries arms in a regiment, as a volunteer, with a view of acquiring military skill and obtaining a commission.
  • noun A young man in training for military or naval service; esp. a pupil in a military or naval school, as at West Point, Annapolis, or Woolwich.
  • noun In New Zealand, a young gentleman learning sheep farming at a station; also, any young man attached to a sheep station.
  • noun Slang, U. S. A young man who makes a business of ruining girls to put them in brothels.

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

  • noun A student at a military school who is training to be an officer.
  • noun A younger or youngest son, who would not inherit as a firstborn son would.
  • noun in compounds Junior. (See also the heraldic term cadency.)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a military trainee (as at a military academy)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from dialectal capdet, captain, from Late Latin capitellum, diminutive of Latin caput, capit-, head; see kaput- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French cadet, from Gascon Occitan capdet, from Latin capitellum, diminutive of caput ("head"). Attested in English from 1634.

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Examples

  • As the word "cadet" is used in A.W. 2, 14, and 48 and defined in A.W. 1 as "a cadet of the United States Military Academy", such word has no application in the United States Air Force as presently constituted insofar as the administration of military justice is concerned and will be disregarded.

    EXECUTIVE ORDER 10026 1949

  • "Would you say a cadet talking about his faith over lunch with another cadet is inappropriate?"

    creeping theocracy 2005

  • Would you say a cadet talking about his faith over lunch with another cadet is inappropriate?

    creeping theocracy 2005

  • As we were assigned to live in cadet companies in alphabetical order, my closest friends were those in the bottom third of the alphabet.

    Robert C. Richardson - Autobiography 1997

  • The cadet is also given about $65 monthly take-home pay.

    Canada's Military Colleges 1965

  • The word cadet, having a foreign smack and an innocent native meaning, is preferred to the more accurate procurer; even prostitutes shrink from the forthright pimp, and employ a characteristic American abbreviation, P.

    Chapter 4. American and English Today. 5. Expletives and Forbidden Words Henry Louis 1921

  • Mr. Hilfiger's collection was called "cadet academy," inspired by uniforms with officer's coats and pea coats, but the look was sporty, some of them shown in thin bonded leather that looked more like scuba gear.

    NYT > Home Page By ERIC WILSON 2012

  • It reported that he called another cadet - who was wearing a headscarf - a "raghead."

    NBCSports.com: Sports 2009

  • It reported that he called another cadet - who was wearing a headscarf - a "raghead."

    RGJ.com - Latest News 2009

  • It reported that he called another cadet - who was wearing a headscarf - a "raghead."

    The Herald | HeraldOnline.com - Front 2009

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