Word.ws English Dictionary

under arms

under arms adjective: equipped with weapons (of a country, army etc.); in a state of armed, military readiness.

Adjective

under arms (not comparable)

  1. Equipped with weapons (of a country, army etc.); in a state of armed, military readiness.
    • They were preceded by a small party of the national guard, in their uniform, and under arms.1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 325
    • The Taliban have only about 40,000 men under arms.1998 September 20, New York Times
  2. (Australia) Carrying a weapon (chiefly of a criminal); of a crime, committed using a weapon or weapons.

Questions about under arms

What does under arms mean?
Under arms means equipped with weapons (of a country, army etc.); in a state of armed, military readiness.
What part of speech is under arms?
Under arms is an adjective.

Words near under arms in the dictionary

  1. under a cloud
  2. under a lucky star
  3. under a spell
  4. under and over
  5. under and overs
  6. under arms
  7. under arrest
  8. under boob
  9. under boobs
  10. under canvas
  11. under center

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under 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.

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