Word.ws English Dictionary

hors de combat

hors de combat adjective: out of action; disabled; no longer able to fight.

Adjective

hors de combat (not comparable)

  1. (literary, international law) Out of action; disabled; no longer able to fight.
    • 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
    • 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

Examples of hors de combat in a sentence

  • 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...
  • 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:
  • […] 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:
  • “They’re considered hors de combat, or noncombatants — effectively prisoners of war,” Dr.2022 November 20, Malachy Browne, Stephen Hiltner, Chevaz Clarke-Williams, Taylor Turner, quoting Dr. Rohini Haar, “Videos Suggest Captive...

Origin of hors de combat

Borrowed from French hors de combat (literally “out of combat”), which is obsolete in contemporary French.

Questions about hors de combat

What does hors de combat mean?
Hors de combat means out of action; disabled; no longer able to fight.
How do you use hors de combat in a sentence?
On her right Froggy was hors de combat already, although he hadn't quite realized it.
What part of speech is hors de combat?
Hors de combat is an adjective.

Words near hors de combat in the dictionary

  1. hors catégorie
  2. hors catégories
  3. hors d'oeuvre
  4. hors d'oeuvres
  5. hors d'œuvre
  6. hors de combat
  7. hors-catégorie
  8. hors-d'oeuvre
  9. hors-d'oeuvres
  10. hors-d'œuvre
  11. hors-d'œuvres

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hors de combat (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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Cite this entry: “hors de combat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hors_de_combat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.