chocolate soldier en · NOUN
Etymology
Military sense popularized by George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play Arms and the Man.
Meanings
-
(qualifier:Digger slang) Someone who is unwilling to fight.
To the maids across the way he was Julia's beau, and if not quite Beau Geste, a gent and well dressed. Obviously he was a chocolate soldier, a bouquet boy.
1932, Warwick Deeping, Old wine and new, A. A. Knopf, page 152:He described him as "a political corpse whose ghost has returned to haunt us," adding that he was "a chocolate soldier, ... a man who never faced an enemy nor successfully faced an issue."
1965, Joseph Rosner, The haters' handbook, Delacorte Press, page 195:I thought he was a chocolate soldier which was probably unfair—everyone said he had done the “right thing” in the Canada campaign.
2010, Robert Moss, Fire Along the Sky: Being the Adventures of Captain Shane Hardacre in the New World, SUNY Press, page 51:
- The butterfly Junonia iphita, the chocolate pansy.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| chocolate soldiers | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
wikipedia: George Bernard Shaw · wikipedia: Arms and the Man