Crossword clues for fusilier
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fusileer \Fu"sil*eer"\, Fusilier \Fu"sil*ier"\, n. [F. fusilier, fr. fusil.] (Mil.)
Formerly, a soldier armed with a fusil. Hence, in the plural:
A title now borne by some regiments and companies; as, ``The Royal Fusiliers,'' etc.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
also fusileer, 1670s, "soldier armed with a musket," from French fusilier "musket" (17c.), literally "piece of steel against which a flint strikes flame," from Old French fuisil, foisil "steel for striking fire; flint; whetstone; grindstone" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *focilis (petra) "(stone) producing fire," from Latin focus "hearth," in Vulgar Latin "fire" (see focus (n.)). Retained by certain regiments of the British army that were formerly armed with fusils.
Wiktionary
n. 1 An infantryman armed with a form of flintlock musket 2 (context British English) A soldier in any of several regiments that once fought with such weapons
WordNet
n. (formerly) a British infantryman armed with a light flintlock musket
Wikipedia
Fusiliers is a name given to various kinds of soldiers; its meaning depends on the historical context. While fusilier is derived from the 17th-century French word fusil – meaning a type of flintlock musket – the term has been used in contrasting ways in different countries and at different times, including soldiers guarding artillery, various elite units, ordinary line infantry and other uses.
Usage examples of "fusilier".
Here one day the Germans made a sudden sortie, drove back the Fusiliers for a few minutes, and killed the Red Cross roomful, bayoneting the wounded men.
And just at that very time, Bimbashi Hilary Joyce, seconded from the Royal Mallow Fusiliers, and temporarily attached to the Ninth Soudanese, made his first appearance in Cairo.
Now this fool of a Fusilier had prised apart the lips of the rush basket to look at the bird, and it had exploded up at him, flying desperately about the chamber before seeing daylight and rocketing out into the valley.
God, and Brooker had two Fusilier Companies following him, and Sharpe watched as a third Company set out for the Convent and he began to relax.
He tugged the sword free, looked for another enemy, but the French had gone back, the courtyard was his, and he screamed at Brooker to line the Fusiliers on the rubble.
Irish Fusiliers, a regiment that many Jerseymen served in, and by 1918 was a very old twenty-six.
A Brigade of the 53rd Division, consisting of Royal Welsh Fusiliers and Herefords, spent a night at Hill 70 on their way to occupy a defensive line between Romani and Mahamadiyeh on the coast.
The pressure was most severe upon the shallow trenches in the front, which had been abandoned by the Boers and were held by the Lancashire Fusiliers.
The Boers closed swiftly in upon the flanks, and the fusiliers were no match for their assailants.
The head of the line of hard-breathing yeomen reached the plateau just as the Boers, sweeping over the remnants of the Northumberland Fusiliers, reached the brink of the cliff.
Two hundred of the Northumberland Fusiliers lay round the wagons and held the Boers off from their prey.
The Fusiliers crouched down among the rocks to recover their breath, and saw far down in the plain beneath them the placid lights which showed where their comrades were resting.
However, the fact, humiliating and inexplicable, is that the guns were so left, that the whole force was withdrawn, and that not only the ten cannon, but also the handful of Devons, with their Colonel, and the Fusiliers were taken prisoners in the donga which had sheltered them all day.
These men were the gunners, the Devons, and the Scots Fusiliers, who were taken in the donga together with small bodies from the Connaughts, the Dublins, and other regiments who, having found some shelter, were unable to leave it, and clung on until the retirement of their regiments left them in a hopeless position.
After they had gained the summit the Fusiliers were stung and stung again by clouds of skirmishers who clung to the flanks of the hill, but their grip was firm and grew firmer with every hour.