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Civilian

[si-vil-yuhn]

noun

a person who is not on active duty with a military, naval, police, or fire fighting organization.

Informal. anyone regarded by members of a profession, interest group, society, etc., as not belonging; nonprofessional; outsider: We need a producer to run the movie studio, not some civilian from the business world.

a person versed in or studying Roman or civil law.

adjective

of, pertaining to, formed by, or administered by civilians.

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Civilian is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English: student of civil law < Old French civilien (adj.); see civil, -ian

Related forms

an·ti·ci·vil·ian, adjective

non·ci·vil·ian, noun

pro·ci·vil·ian, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Civilian

Example Sentences

With a military commission, the government would not be rolling the dice with a civilian jury.

Basic pay is required by law to grow in line with civilian pay.

The target of an air raid could be missed entirely, and innocent people and civilian structures could be damaged.

EXPAND

With a military commission, the government would not be rolling the dice with a civilian jury.

Basic pay is required by law to grow in line with civilian pay.

The target of an air raid could be missed entirely, and innocent people and civilian structures could be damaged.

Relatively few scientists win this medal, the highest civilian honor awarded in the.

Many of the guards had worked as correctional officers in their civilian lives.

File a complaint with the civilian complaint review board.

Figuring the calculation of civilian casualties during military actions.

One possible reason for these errors is a muddying of the waters in recent years between civilian and military justice.

It extended to the targeting of civilian populations as well.

The immediate big future for this development is in the civilian market.

Georg did not bomb to incite terror in the civilian population.

Officers sign up civilian volunteers to join the fight next to the anti-aircraft station on the basketball court of a high school.

McChrystal, was taken in part because of concern over civilian casualties.

It is likely that both sources underestimate the true number of civilian casualties.

In fact, this was when reports of civilian casualties in the region began circulating.

Their civilian power programs were excellent cover for weapons development.

The militants' civilian toll has gone up at a similar rate.

The explosion destroyed the civilian car, the governor's office said.

The army has mostly stepped in when inept civilian governments were.

Reports of violence against civilian populations, including refugees, are widespread.

More such sites may be needed to secure the fissile materials that result from civilian nuclear power.

Yet despite billions in reconstruction dollars and an influx of civilian development.

Indeed, airstrikes are the main cause of civilian deaths by the coalition.

Apparently it ushers in a new age of democracy under civilian rule.

He told me that his home state had the lowest rate of war casualties, yet the highest rate of civilian support for the war.

Government investments specifically for civilian use are pretty sorry as far as returns.

In the civilian world, it's illegal to deny health coverage or disability benefits on the basis of genetic information.

Civilian police attached to such missions are a different matter.

Here medical teams cut, crack, and inject where their civilian counterparts might pause and worry about lawsuits.

Others seek help in civilian practice rather than in the military health system.

There, he promised survivors to look for new ways to keep civilian casualties to a minimum.

The civilian opposition may be doing better than the armed one.

Deniers of alternative energy investments are ultimately screwing their children of future civilian jobs.

The technology can also help civilian emergency workers to communicate more efficiently.

The latest operation marks perhaps the first time that civilian officials have carried out such an action against the army.

To then apply civilian standards of conduct to soldiers, is inherently flawed.

Austal has built hundreds of aluminum ferries for civilian customers.

In a series of meetings with opposition leaders, they have insisted that they sincerely want an early return to civilian rule.

Security/Terrorism-related fears alone make civilian use dubious and making certain this will be developed in a military capacity.

Both companies say the technology can be used on different-size airframes for a variety of military and civilian applications.

His ode to systems engineering includes a detailed look at three large defence projects and one civilian one.

Once out, and back in civilian life, it was hard to break that habit and i was criticized for having too firm a shake for.

Battlefield pleas were even turned down when there were no innocents in the area, because of the harm to civilian property.

The university researchers, meanwhile, are continuing to look at civilian applications.

If current rates of civilian casualties hold, there will be as many civilian deaths from the bombs as last.

If that works, then civilian applications beckon, and local authorities will have yet another excuse not to fix the roads.

Nicholson also wants more diplomats and civilian aid workers.

Civilian versions of the craft were used by ranchers, police departments and the media.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

civilian (sɪˈvɪljən)

—n
	a. a person whose primary occupation is civil or nonmilitary
	b. (as modifier): civilian life

[C14 (originally: a practitioner of civil law): from civile (from the Latin phrase jūs cīvīle civil law) + -ian]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

civilian

1388, from O.Fr. civilien "of the civil law," created from L. civilis (see civil). Original meaning in Eng. was "judge or authority on civil law," sense of "non-military person" is first attested 1829.

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Matching Quote

"If for Americans, at least, the Great War could sometimes be imagined as a brief, quasi-athletic lark, the Second War permitted no such melioration by the spirit of adolescent optimism. In North Africa alone, the 1st Infantry Division spent more time in mortal contact with the enemy than all the time it spent—forming up, marching, drawing equipment, lining up at the mess hall, training, bitching—in all of the First World War. And on December 7, 1941, the American navy lost in one day more men killed—2008, to be exact—than in all the days of the earlier war. The Second World War, total and global as it was, killed worldwide, more civilian men, women, and children than soldiers, sailors, and airmen. And compared with the idiocies of Verdun, Gallipoli, or Tannenberg, it was indescribably cruel and insane. It was not until the Second World War had enacted all its madness that one could realize how near Victorian social and ethical norms the First World War really was."

-Paul Fussell

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