volunteer definition | Dictionary.com

vol⋅un⋅teer

[vol-uh

n-teer]

–noun

1.	a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking.

2.	a person who performs a service willingly and without pay.

3.	Military. a person who enters the service voluntarily rather than through conscription or draft, esp. for special or temporary service rather than as a member of the regular or permanent army.

Law.

a.	a person whose actions are not founded on any legal obligation so to act.

b.	a person who intrudes into a matter that does not concern him or her, as a person who pays the debt of another where he or she is neither legally nor morally bound to do so and has no interest to protect in making the payment.

5.	Agriculture. a volunteer plant.

6.	(initial capital letter) a native or inhabitant of Tennessee (used as a nickname).

–adjective

7.	of, pertaining to, or being a volunteer or volunteers: a volunteer fireman.

8.	Agriculture. growing without being seeded, planted, or cultivated by a person; springing up spontaneously.

–verb (used without object)

9.	to offer oneself for some service or undertaking.

10.	to enter service or enlist as a volunteer.

–verb (used with object)

11.	to offer (oneself or one's services) for some undertaking or purpose.

12.	to give, bestow, or perform voluntarily: to volunteer a song.

13.	to say, tell, or communicate voluntarily: to volunteer an explanation.

Origin:
1590–1600; < F volontaire < L voluntārius voluntary, with -eer for F -aire

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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vol·un·teer (vŏl'ən-tîr')

A person who performs or offers to perform a service voluntarily: an information booth staffed by volunteers; hospital volunteers.
Law
1. A person who renders aid, performs a service, or assumes an obligation voluntarily.
2. A person who holds property under a deed made without consideration.
Botany A cultivated plant growing from self-sown or accidentally dropped seed.

adj.

Being, consisting of, or done by volunteers: volunteer firefighters; volunteer tutoring.
Botany Growing from self-sown or accidentally dropped seed. Used of a cultivated plant or crop.

v.   vol·un·teered, vol·un·teer·ing, vol·un·teers

v.   tr.
To give or offer to give voluntarily: volunteered their services; volunteer to give blood.
v.   intr.

To perform or offer to perform a service of one's own free will.
To do charitable or helpful work without pay: Many retirees volunteer in community service and day care centers.

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

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Volunteer

Vol`un*teer"\, n. [F. volontaire. See Voluntary, a.]

1. One who enters into, or offers for, any service of his own free will.

2. (Mil.) One who enters into service voluntarily, but who, when in service, is subject to discipline and regulations like other soldiers; -- opposed to conscript; specifically, a voluntary member of the organized militia of a country as distinguished from the standing army.

3. (Law) A grantee in a voluntary conveyance; one to whom a conveyance is made without valuable consideration; a party, other than a wife or child of the grantor, to whom, or for whose benefit, a voluntary conveyance is made. --Burrill.

Volunteer

Vol`un*teer"\, a. Of or pertaining to a volunteer or volunteers; consisting of volunteers; voluntary; as, volunteer companies; volunteer advice.

Volunteer

Vol`un*teer"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Volunteered; p. pr. & vb. n. Volunteering.] To offer or bestow voluntarily, or without solicitation or compulsion; as, to volunteer one's services.

Volunteer

Vol`un*teer"\, v. i. To enter into, or offer for, any service of one's own free will, without solicitation or compulsion; as, he volunteered in that undertaking.

Language Translation for : volunteer

Spanish: ofrecerse voluntario,

German: sich freiwillig anbieten,

Japanese: 志願する

More Translations »

volunteer (n.)

c.1600, "one who offers himself for military service," from M.Fr. voluntaire, noun use of adj. meaning "voluntary," from L. voluntarius "voluntary, of one's free will" (see voluntary). Non-military sense is first recorded 1638. The verb is first recorded 1755, from the noun. Tennessee has been the Volunteer State since the Mexican War, when a call for 2,800 volunteers brought out 30,000 men.

Main Entry: vol·un·teer
Pronunciation: "vä-l&n-'tir
Function: noun
1 : one that voluntarily undertakes something; especially : one who without request, obligation, or an interest pays the debt of another and is denied reimbursement from subrogation
2 : one who receives property without giving valuable consideration

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