Word.ws English Dictionary

King's shillings

King's shillings is the plural of King's shilling.

Meaning of King's shilling

Noun

King's shilling (plural King's shillings)

  1. (UK, 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.
    • 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.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Strife in Love”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 182
  2. (figuratively) The benefits and rewards of military service.

Questions about King's shillings

What is King's shillings the plural of?
King's shillings is the plural of King's shilling.

Words near King's shillings in the dictionary

  1. king's rook's pawn
  2. king's rook's pawns
  3. King's Scout
  4. King's Scouts
  5. King's shilling
  6. King's shillings
  7. King's Somborne
  8. king's spear
  9. King's speech
  10. King's Sutton
  11. King's X

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: King's shillings (page history and authors); King's shilling (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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