Word.ws English Dictionary

shoulder arms

shoulder arms noun: a position or command in the manual of arms in which one places a rifle on the either left or right shoulder, with the forearm parallel to the ground and the hand holding the butt.

shoulder arms: a position or command in the manual of arms in which one places a rifle on the either left or right...
Image: Official Navy Page from United States of America Lt.j.g, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

shoulder arms (plural shoulder arms)

  1. a position or command in the manual of arms in which one places a rifle on the either left or right shoulder, with the forearm parallel to the ground and the hand holding the butt.
  2. (Commonwealth) a military command in which one places a rifle in the side of the flank and gripped by either left or right hand.

Verb

shoulder arms (third-person singular simple present shoulders arms, present participle shouldering arms, simple past and past participle shouldered arms)

  1. (intransitive) Of a soldier at drill, to place a rifle on the right shoulder, with the forearm parallel to the ground and the hand holding the butt.
  2. (Commonwealth, intransitive) Of a soldier at drill, to place a rifle in the side of the flank and gripped by either left or right hand.
  3. (intransitive) To deliberately lift the bat out of the path of the ball when it is judged to be missing the wicket.

Forms of shoulder arms

Noun
pluralshoulder arms
Verb
third-person singular presentshoulders arms
present participleshouldering arms
past participleshouldered arms
pastshouldered arms

Questions about shoulder arms

What does shoulder arms mean?
Shoulder arms means a position or command in the manual of arms in which one places a rifle on the either left or right shoulder, with the forearm parallel to the ground and the hand holding the butt.
What part of speech is shoulder arms?
Shoulder arms can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of shoulder arms?
The plural of shoulder arms is shoulder arms.

Words near shoulder arms in the dictionary

  1. shoulded on
  2. shoulden
  3. shoulder
  4. shoulder angel
  5. shoulder angels
  6. shoulder arms
  7. shoulder bag
  8. shoulder bags
  9. shoulder belt
  10. shoulder belts
  11. shoulder blade

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shoulder arms (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: en-au-shoulder arms.ogg.

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