myrmidon
/ˈmɜː.mɪˌdɒn//ˈmɝ.mɪˌdɑn/
myrmidon noun: a soldier or a subordinate civil officer who executes orders of a superior without protest or pity (sometimes applied to bailiffs, constables, etc).
Noun (1)
myrmidon (plural myrmidons)
- A soldier or a subordinate civil officer who executes orders of a superior without protest or pity (sometimes applied to bailiffs, constables, etc).
- Antonia bustled round the ransack'd room, / And, turning up her nose, with looks abused / Her master, and his myrmidons, of whom / Not one, except the attorney, was amused; […]1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, stanza CLIX, page 82
- Tobias (to Jonas Fogg, manager of a madhouse): "I will die ere I submit to you or your vile myrmidons."1847, George Dibdin Pitt, The String of Pearls; or, The Fiend of Fleet Street (play), act III, scene II
Noun (2) capitalized: Myrmidon
Myrmidon (plural Myrmidons)
- One of a fierce tribe or troop who accompanied Achilles, their king, in the Trojan War.
- The Myrmidons were the soldiers of Achilles, in the Trojan war. From them all zealous and unscrupulous followers of a political chief are called by that name, down to this day. But the origin of the Myrmidons would not give one the idea of a fierce and bloody race, but rather of a laborious and...1855, Thomas Bulfinch, chapter XII, in The Age of Fable
Proper noun capitalized: Myrmidon
Myrmidon
- The ancestral hero of the Myrmidon tribe, son of Zeus and Eurymedusa.
myrmidon meaning in Tamil and Bengali
myrmidon in Tamil
- ஏவலன், அடியாள், தொண்டன்
myrmidon in Bengali
- অন্ধভাবে আদেশ পালনকারী ভৃত্য, সৈনিক
Examples of myrmidon in a sentence
- Whether myrmidons of Justice, especially sent down from London, would be lying in ambush behind the gate; […]1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XII, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published...
- He cared no more for the Devil and all his myrmidons, for he kenned brawly he was damned.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
- He fought the Pinkertons, the myrmidons of Capital.1912, Alexander Berkman, chapter 6, in Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist:
- Corbett or some other flatfooted myrmidon[…]1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, Bantam edition, published 1992, →ISBN, pages 177–178:
Synonyms of myrmidon
19 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of myrmidon
| plural | myrmidons |
|---|---|
| plural | Myrmidons |
Origin of myrmidon
From Myrmidon, from Latin Myrmidones, from Ancient Greek Μυρμιδόνες (Murmidónes).
From Latin Myrmidones, from Ancient Greek Μυρμιδόνες (Murmidónes), a tribe of warriors led by Achilles to the Trojan War. Folk etymology in Ovid's time derived the tribe's name from μυρμηδών (murmēdṓn, “ant-nest”), from μύρμηξ (múrmēx, “ant”)).
Words formed from myrmidon
Questions about myrmidon
- What does myrmidon mean?
- Myrmidon means a soldier or a subordinate civil officer who executes orders of a superior without protest or pity (sometimes applied to bailiffs, constables, etc).
- What is myrmidon in Tamil?
- Myrmidon in Tamil is ஏவலன், அடியாள், தொண்டன். See Myrmidon meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use myrmidon in a sentence?
- Whether myrmidons of Justice, especially sent down from London, would be lying in ambush behind the gate; […]
- What part of speech is myrmidon?
- Myrmidon can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce myrmidon?
- Myrmidon is pronounced /ˈmɜː.mɪˌdɒn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of myrmidon?
- The plural of myrmidon is myrmidons.
Words near myrmidon in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: myrmidon (page history and authors); Myrmidon (page history and authors); myrmidon (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); myrmidon (Bengali Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-myrmidon.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Myrmidon.wav.
Cite this entry: “myrmidon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/myrmidon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.