hors de combat en · ADJ
Etymology
Borrowed from French hors de combat (literally “out of combat”), which is obsolete in contemporary French.
Meanings
-
(literary, not-comparable, qualifier:international law) Out of action; disabled; no longer able to fight.
[…] who, as an American infantry scout hors de combat, as a prisoner of war, witnessed the fire bombing of Dresden, Germany […]
1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC:On her right Froggy was hors de combat already, although he hadn't quite realized it.
1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book I (The Romantic Egotist), page 72:We have no influence but by our influence over those called our masters; how do we acquire that influence? By flattering a man's vanity, and by playing on his hopes and fears! These are all put hors de combat in marriage.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “An Act of Parliament”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 191:Non-operating revenue for the day included the collection of $50 for the repair of engine No. 9, which at the time—early August—was hors de combat.
1940 November, “Notes and News: Railway Operation Ad Lib”, in Railway Magazine, page 612:Dr. Haar noted that when they surrendered, the Russian soldiers had been lying down, apparently unarmed, with their arms outstretched or behind their heads. “They’re considered hors de combat, or noncombatants — effectively prisoners of war,” Dr. Haar said.
2022 November 20, Malachy Browne, Stephen Hiltner, Chevaz Clarke-Williams, Taylor Turner, quoting Dr. Rohini Haar, “Videos Suggest Captive Russian Soldiers Were Killed at Close Range”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:When we find them, there will be a band of desperate men at the bay. Some of our men, I presume, will be put hors de combat. These royalists are good swordsmen, and the Englishman is devilish cunning, and looks very powerful.
1905 January 12, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], The Scarlet Pimpernel, popular edition, London: Greening & Co., published 20 March 1912, →OCLC, page 256: