pioner

Noun

pioneer (plural pioneers)

1. One who goes before, as into the wilderness, preparing the way for others to follow.
2. A person or other entity who is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise, or progress.
   • Some people will consider their national heroes to be pioneers of civilization.
3. A soldier detailed or employed to form roads, dig trenches, and make bridges, as an army advances; a sapper.
   • [King of] Fess. What thinks your greatnes beſt to be atchieu’d
     In purſuit of the Cities ouerthrow?
     Bai[azeth]. I wil the captiue Pioners of Argier,
     Cut off the water, that by leaden pipes
     Runs to the citie from the mountain Carnon, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
4. A member of any of several European organizations advocating abstinence from alcohol.
5. A member of a children’s organization operated by the Communist Party, typically in the second of three stages toward becoming a member of the Party itself.

See all 10 meanings of pioneer