Word.ws English Dictionary

bonsai army

bonsai army noun: a sovereign state's army or military force that is too small to fundamentally protect the country, and could be considered to exist merely "for decoration".

Noun

bonsai army (plural bonsai armies)

  1. A sovereign state's army or military force that is too small to fundamentally protect the country, and could be considered to exist merely "for decoration".
    • Without Soviet support surrounding the missile crisis, Cuba's military would have been merely a bonsai army and they would have quickly succumbed to any serious invasion from the west.
  2. A tiny, largely-ornamental (military) structure bereft of the capability to effectively carry out its constitutional missions.
  3. A military that covers the entire spectrum of capabilities, but has virtually no external military clout.

Forms of bonsai army

pluralbonsai armies

Origin of bonsai army

In reference to the small size and decorative nature of bonsai plants.

Questions about bonsai army

What does bonsai army mean?
Bonsai army means a sovereign state's army or military force that is too small to fundamentally protect the country, and could be considered to exist merely "for decoration".
What part of speech is bonsai army?
Bonsai army is a noun.
What is the plural of bonsai army?
The plural of bonsai army is bonsai armies.

Words near bonsai army in the dictionary

  1. bons mots
  2. bons vivants
  3. bons-vivants
  4. bonsai
  5. bonsai armies
  6. bonsai army
  7. bonsaied
  8. bonsaiing
  9. bonsais
  10. Bonsall
  11. Bonsalls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bonsai army (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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