King's shilling
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English
Alternative forms
- Queen's shilling (during reigns when the monarch is a queen regnant)
Noun
King's shilling (plural King's shillings) (military)
- (British, historical) A shilling accepted by new recruits when agreeing to or tricked into enlisting into the British army or navy during the 18th and 19th centuries.
- 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Strife in Love”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. , →OCLC, part II, page 182:
- I have taken the King's shilling, but perhaps if you came for me they would let me go back with you. I was a fool when I did it. I don't want to be in the army.
- (figurative) The benefits and rewards of military service.
Related terms
Further reading
King's shilling on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - “queen’s shilling” under “shilling, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023. - “take the King’s shilling, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
