Military Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Military

Military. Army, Navy, Marines, sailors, soldiers, aviators, the Pentagon, the military-industrial complex, warfare, wars. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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trap n. She had made more than 50 day and night “traps,” as the carrier landings are called. And, along with her fellow pilots, she was continually honing her skills. [English Aviation Military Nautical] [full cite] (Mar. 30, 2007)

trap n. The Greyhound, which looks as if it sprang from the womb of Howard Hughes’s Spruce Goose, is 50,000 pounds of flying metal that must set itself down on the pitching deck of a ship at 120 knots and come to a complete stop in two seconds and 200 or so feet. Our pilot made the “trap” on the first try. But tonight Adm. Gortney will watch from his seat on the bridge as freshly minted pilots (“nuggets,” in Navy parlance) miss their traps and “bolter” off the deck to try again. [English Aviation Military Jargon] [full cite] (Jul. 13, 2007)

troop surge n. Perhaps more importantly, Bush’s plan amounts to a last-ditch effort to salvage the U.S. endeavor in Iraq, and it’s not clear what will happen if the troop surge and economic aid fail to improve the situation. [English Military] [full cite] (Jan. 12, 2007)

trunk monkey n. A “Mad Max” array of mostly white, mostly Western security contractors pulled up to the airport in waves of armored SUVs, some with sirens wailing. Their gunners squatted in the open backs. Sunglasses blanked out their expressions. They were the “trunk monkeys”—security contractor parlance for the gunmen who ride in the back of convoys, aiming their weapons at the Iraqi civilians on the road. [English Automobiles & Transportation Military Slang] [full cite] (Dec. 28, 2007)

turkey peek n. In an effort to find his Marines, Taube said he risked injury by taking a “turkey peek” over his gravel pile to see if he could locate Robinett. [English Military Slang] [full cite] (Aug. 2, 2006)

turkey peek n. We take a turkey peek, then sprint across the compound. [English Military] [full cite] (Aug. 2, 2006)

turkey peeking n. Insurgents bob their heads out of homes to catch a glimpse of the Marines—“turkey peeking,” as the troops call it—a sign that they are preparing to attack. [English Military Slang] [full cite] (Aug. 2, 2006)

turtle n. In soldier parlance, they are “turtles”—a Vietnam-era nickname derived from their supposedly slow arrival in theater—or “FNGs,” a slightly more colorful reference to their “[expletive] New Guy” status. [English Military] [full cite] (Feb. 6, 2005)

twidget n. Cullen was a “twidget”—someone who made fine adjustments to computers rather than turning a wrench to fix the ship’s heavy equipment. [English Military] [full cite] (Jun. 20, 2004)

twidget n. As the Marines laughingly said, once they had become fans of the use of sensors, “If you want it done right, keep the ‘twidgets’ out of the field!” [English United States Military] [full cite] (Jun. 20, 2004)

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