Forms: α. 7 volunteir(e, 7–8 voluntier, 8 volontier. β. 7– volunteer 7 -eere), 7–8 volenteer. [ad. F. volontaire, † voluntaire (= It. volont-, voluntario, Sp. and Pg. voluntario), ad. L. voluntārius VOLUNTARY a. The ending has been assimilated to the suffixes -IER and -EER.]
A. sb. 1. Mil. One who voluntarily offers or enrols himself for military service, in contrast to those who are under obligation to do so, or who form part of a regular army or military force.
In early use freq. implying service without the pay given to the regular troops.
α. a. 1618. Raleigh, Mahomet (1637), 80. 6000 horse and voluntiers infinite accomodated with all provisions.
1654. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I. (1655), 68. The enemy being about one thousand Horse and Foot besides Voluntiers, made a very gallant impression upon us.
1654–66. Earl Orrery, Parthen. (1676), 25. The Prince honor’d me with the leading of 2000 Horse, all Voluntiers.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, ix. (1766), I. 306. The earl of Montague … was then a voluntier and one of the Duke’s Court.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., VIII. Wks. 1813, III. 85. To every standard that was erected, voluntiers flocked from all quarters.
β. c. 1600. Drayton, Miseries Q. Margaret, clxxvi. And with fiue thousand valient Volunteers, of natiue French, put vnder her Command, With Armes well fitted she towards Scotland steeres.
1627. Lisander & Cal., I. 14. With a handfull of Volenteers he defeated manie thousands of Reisters.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., lxiv. (1663), 261. He resolved by the means of ten thousand Volunteers, who had offered themselves unto him,… to attacque this fort.
1677. W. Hubbard, Narrative, 18. A Company of Volunteers, under the Command of Captain Samuel Moseley.
1747. Gentl. Mag., 321. Certain burgesses and inhabitants of the city, offering to serve as volunteers in defence of the city, against the rebels.
1788. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), I. 599/2. All this time the American army was increasing by the continual arrival of militia and volunteers from all parts.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind., lviii. (1844), II. 242. He is then a volunteer, like all of their soldiers in war, and bound by no compulsive power.
1870. J. Bruce, Gideon, xxii. 399. These discouraged Israelites who had deserted were here seen returning and flocking as volunteers now, round the triumphant standard of that mighty man of valour.
b. spec. A member of an organized military company or force, formed by voluntary enrolment and distinct from the regular army. In later use, a civilian forming part of the ‘auxiliary forces’ of a country as a member of such a body.
1642. Exceeding Welcome Newes fr. Beverley (title-p.), The Resolution of the Gentry and Commonalty of Yorkshire to joyn with the London Voluntiers, for the defence of the King and Parliament.
1643. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. IV. 435. To warne the watch of the voluntiers of the said Town whoe did dutie of watch twice 24 howres every weeke.
1712. E. Cooke, Voy. S. Sea, 74. The Volunteers march’d before the Army, daring the Enemy in a very haughty Manner.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 689/2. Making their object known to government, they were, in 1794, embodied in a regiment, called The Royal Edinburgh Volunteers.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Nov., 418. At his house we met with the poet-laureat of the Inverness volunteers.
1818. Mrs. Iliff, Poems Sev. Subj. (ed. 2), 23.
| Let Bonaparte his legions boast, | |
| We tremble not with coward fears; | |
| Our tars shall keep the sea—our coast | |
| Be guarded by our volunteers. |
1860. Dickens, Lett. (1880), II. 115. Every other man … I know … is a volunteer though.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 295/2. The personal equipment of the volunteers,… as a rule, is deficient for field service.
† c. In the phrase to go (also serve) a volunteer.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low C. Wars, I. 24. Octavio Forneze … served a Volunteer against the French.
1685. Crowne, Sir C. Nice, I. They will go voluntiers into a battle, but must be prest to marriage.
1718. Prior, Poems Sev. Occas., Ded. In the first Dutch War He went a Voluntier under the Duke of York.
1760. Cautions & Adv. Officers Army, 33. Whilst Suspicions only are against him, there is a possibility of wiping them out, and that is by desiring to go a Voluntier with the Grenadiers the first desperate Attack they are ordered on.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 215/2. He endeavoured to prevent the young men who offered to go volunteers from giving in their names.
1870. L’Estrange, Miss Mitford, I. i. 2. He had the resolution to part from what he loved, and to go a volunteer into the army.
† d. One voluntarily serving in the Navy. Obs.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 18. What Discouragement gives not this to right-bred Tars from entering Volunteers.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4440/1. The Trumpeters, Quarter-Gunners,… Volunteers by Letter, and Marine-Soldiers.
a. 1720. Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1795), I. II. 122. King Charles II. then in exile, asked the Dutch to be received in their navy as a volunteer.
2. fig. (With direct allusion to sense 1.) a. Of things.
1636. Quarles, Elegie, Wks. (Grosart), III. 11/2. But stay! what need, what need we presse a teare, When every eye becomes a Volunteire?
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. i. 359. More probable it is, that Hirams fancy … was not pressed in all particulars, but was left a volunteire for some descants of Art.
1715. Chappelow, Right Way to be Rich (1717), 167. There are abundance of full texts … which offer themselves as voluntiers in this service.
1733. Pope, Ess. Man, III. 88. Reason … Cares not for service, or but serves when prest,… But honest Instinct comes a volunteer.
1733. Duchess of Queensberry, Lett. to Swift, 3 Nov. I … have not time to think of answering your letters. This is only a volunteer.
b. Of persons.
1650. Baxter, Saints’ R., III. ii. 295. They wilfully and obstinately persisted in their Rebellion, and were meer Voluntiers in the service of the Devil.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, v. ¶ 25. They have generally gone higher, exhorted men to become voluntiers in vertues warfare.
1671. Shadwell, Humourists, IV. If it be the Devil, Mr. Parson, we’ll turn you loose to him; you take pay to fight against him, we are but voluntiers.
1755. Young, Centaur, ii. Wks. 1757, IV. 150. The clergy are voluntiers; the aged are pressed by nature into the service of wisdom.
3. One who voluntarily offers his services in any capacity; one who of his own free will takes part in any enterprise.
α. 1638. Penit. Conf., xi. (1657), 301. He comes in as a voluntier upon his own confession.
1648. Gage, West Ind., i. 3. Yearly are sent thither Missions … either of Voluntiers, Fryers Mendicants, Priests or Monkes, or else of forced Jesuites.
1677. Auth. Life, in Cleveland’s Gen. Poems, A 6 b. Perceiving the Ostracism that was intended, he became a Voluntier in his Academick Exile.
1688. Penn, in Life, Wks. 1782, I. 112. Voluntiers are Blanks and Cyphers in all Governments.
1755. Connoisseur, No. 70, ¶ 19. I do not know the names of any of the Voluntiers, to whom I have been greatly indebted.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 257. Such unauthorized voluntiers in violence are not ranked among open enemies.
β. 1655. Fuller, Hist. Cambr., 104. More probably he was a Volunteer in his Lecture, having no Salary for the reading thereof.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 526, ¶ 2. Our Hackney-Coachmen … do still ply as Volunteers Day and Night for the Good of their Country.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 415. There is a multitude of labourers in the vineyard, as well volunteers in dissertations and essays, as retained servants entered upon the steward’s roll.
1794. Southey, Botany Bay Eclogues, ii. Anon the morning came, And off I set a volunteer for fame.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 50. Another party, likewise consisting of seven volunteers, were landed in Jan Mayen Island.
1833. Tracts for Times, No. 17. 3. Are they duly authorised and commissioned from the Court; are they come as volunteers, or have they been sent by their master?
1873. Mozley, Univ. Serm. (1876), 168. The peculiar nature of the agency concerned in the Act … is … a guarantee to the willingness of the victim … as being that of a volunteer from the first.
† 4. A flower or tree that grows spontaneously. Obs.–1 (Cf. 8 b.)
1657. Thornley, trans. Longus’ Daphnis & Chloe, 172. Flowers,—some the Earth’s own Voluntiers, some the structure of the Artist’s hand.
† 5. a. A deliberate lie. b. A voluntary gift.
1678. Dryden, Kind Keeper, III. i. Now will he lie three or four rapping Voluntiers, rather than be thought ignorant in any thing.
1757. Mrs. Griffith, Lett. Henry & Frances (1767), I. 154. I think myself vastly obliged to dear Harry for his obliging voluntier.
6. Law. One to whom a voluntary conveyance is made; one who benefits by a deed made without valuable consideration.
1744. Jacob, Law Dict. (ed. 5), s.v. Voluntary, Remainders limited in Settlements, to a Man’s right Heirs, etc. are deemed Voluntary in Equity, and the Persons claiming under them are called Volunteers.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), II. 135. There seemed no reason … why these general incidents … should be saved in favour of a devisee, or other volunteer, and not in favour of a wife. Ibid., IV. 276. Equity will relieve, even in favour of a volunteer.
B. attrib. or as adj.
1. a. Of troops, etc.: Consisting or composed of persons undertaking military service as volunteers.
1662. Extr. St. Papers rel. Friends (1911), II. 158. A Company of 100 Volonteere Horse which I drew together.
1661. Dk. Buckhm., in Slingsby’s Diary (1836), 363. I have sent orders … to get the volontier troopes in as great a readinesse as they can.
1798. Hinderwell, Hist. Scarborough, 236. A Volunteer Corps of one hundred and eighty, raised in the town. Ibid. Five Companies of Volunteer Infantry.
1811. Regul. & Orders Army, 5. Officers of Yeomanry Cavalry and Volunteer Corps rank as juniors of their respective Ranks.
1822. Act 3 Geo. IV., c. 126 § 32. No Toll shall be demanded … for any Carriage conveying Volunteer Infantry.
1852. Sir C. Napier, Def. Eng., 13. With regard to your volunteer corps, I think each should consist of from one to four companies.
1886. C. E. Pascoe, London of To-day, xviii. (ed. 3), 169. The military spirit of the ‘Volunteer’ corps of London.
b. Of persons: Voluntarily performing military service; serving as a volunteer in the army († or navy). Also in predicative use (b).
(a) 1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., ccxcix. They dance and rore The expectation of a Muster; where They ’nroule themselues, Gentlemen volunteire.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xlvii. Nine thousand dragoons and a hundred and fourty thousand voluntier adventurers.
1698. T. Froger (title), A Relation of a Voyage made … by the Sieur Froger, Voluntier-Engineer on board the English Falcon.
1710–1. Swift, Lett. (1767), III. 127. I doubt the scoundrel was broke, and got a commission, or perhaps is a voluntier gentleman.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., cxxxi. (1819), III. 64. Compare the limbs of the volunteer soldiers in the metropolis with those of the rustic militia, or regulars.
(b) 1722. De Foe, Col. Jack, xiv. I was not only insensibly drawn in, but was perfectly volunteer in that dull cause. Ibid. (1724), Gt. Law Subordination, 145. You will blame the gentleman, perhaps, for engaging thus voluntier with his servant. Ibid. (1728), Compl. Eng. Gent. (1890), 14. The modern Lord was a Man of Spirit, had serv’d Voluntier under the Fountain of Glory Gustavus Adolphus.
1744. M. Bishop, Life & Adv., 57. There is a wide Difference between being press’d and going Voluntier.
c. Of or pertaining to a volunteer or volunteers.
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 136. Indeed it will be a volunteer war, said the king, for the northern gentry have sent me an account of above four thousand horse they have already.
1779. Sheridan, Critic, I. i. If you had the least spirit you would have been … trailing a volunteer pike in the Artillery ground.
1837. Alison, Hist. Europe (1847), VI. 118. This was the Volunteer system and the general arming of the people.
2. Voluntarily performing any action or service; undertaking a service of one’s own free will.
The predicative use (quot. 1727) is freq. in De Foe’s works.
1661. Boyle, Style of Script., 195. He is such a Volunteer Sinner, that he hath neither the Wit nor the Excuse of declining his Conscience in Complement to his Senses.
1727. De Foe, Hist. Apparit., Introd. 7. It was a most incongruous Suggestion that the Devil should come Voluntier to an Atheist.
1759. Dilworth, Pope, 71. It was natural for them to be the volunteer-heralds of that translation’s merit they had some share in bringing to perfection.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), III. 179. Probably a volunteer artist.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Horace in Lond., 125. How many a volunteer muse … Has met with her death in reviews.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Chr., 249. James and John and Peter, who never heartily recognized the Volunteer Apostle.
transf. 1713. Steele, Englishm., No. 55. 353. There were many hundreds of Volunteer Links brought into this Protestant Illumination.
b. Of vegetation: Growing spontaneously.
1794. Vancouver, Agric. Cambridge, 44. A remarkably fine growth of volunteer ash, has lately been cut down.
1882. Contemp. Rev., Aug., 233. They had the year before last 80 acres of volunteer or self-sown oats.
1883. Century Mag., Oct., 804/1. Crops are raised sometimes for twenty successive years, on the same fields, without the soils showing exhaustion, and what are called volunteer crops.
3. Of services, actions, etc.: Rendered or performed voluntarily.
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 55. The king desires no man’s service but what is purely volunteer.
1779. Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 284. I am not very fond of any volunteer modes of raising money for public service.
1794. Mathias, Purs. Lit. (1798), 252. Mr. Reeves will deter any man from volunteer effusions in favour of any Minister.
1873. Mozley, Univ. Serm., viii. (1876), 167. It cannot be said that it is … contrary to justice to accept a volunteer offer of suffering.
