Word.ws English Dictionary

martinets

martinets is the plural of martinet.

martinets is the third-person singular simple present indicative of martinet.

Meaning of martinet

Noun (1)

martinet (plural martinets)

  1. A strict disciplinarian.
    • Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  2. (figuratively) Anyone who lays stress on a rigid adherence to the details of discipline, or to forms and fixed methods or rules.
    • Before I met Mr. Bowen Cooke I had been given to understand that he was of a reserved nature, and on occasion could be a "bit of a martinet"; [...].1942 July-August, Chas. S. Lake, “Some C.M.Es. I Have Known: II—C. J. Bowen Cooke”, in Railway Magazine, page 223
  3. (historical) A short whip with multiple lashes once used in France.

Noun (2)

martinet (plural martinets)

  1. (rare) A martin; a swift.

See all 6 meanings of martinet

Questions about martinets

What is martinets the plural of?
Martinets is the plural of martinet.

Words near martinets in the dictionary

  1. martineted
  2. martineting
  3. martinetish
  4. martinetism
  5. martinetisms
  6. martinets
  7. martinetship
  8. martinetted
  9. martinetting
  10. Martinez
  11. Martinezism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: martinets (page history and authors); martinet (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “martinets.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/martinets. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.