cannon fodder
7
8.5
- noun
- /ˈkænən ˈfɔːdər/
- Offensive
:
carne de cañón
- In the battle, the commanding officer viewed the new recruits as cannon fodder, sending them to the front lines without adequate training.
So the friendlies main export is human cannon fodder.
- So the friendlies main export is human cannon fodder.
- They have no background to be anything other than cannon fodder.
Examples
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They use the freshmen as cannon fodder.
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Capitalism is intolerant of an educated peasantry because they are needed as cannon fodder.
Blog text (32) -
Poor kids are cannon fodder.
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Most of the people on the planet are merely cannon fodder in this war.
Blog text (6) -
Our children are the cannon fodder for corporations, and we must march where we stand.
Blog text (12) -
There must always be troops, and we see in some instances where men are just cannon fodder as well.
Blog text (26) -
Many of the Nazis were aware of this when they used the German people as cannon fodder in WWII.
Blog text (31) -
"Capitalism is intolerant of an educated peasantry because they are needed as cannon fodder."
Blog text (32) -
Our kids are being used as cannon fodder for Corbett and the shot callers above him like ALEC.
Blog text (29) -
Most of the Conquistadors were people who had been regarded as cannon fodder in wars in mainland Europe and were glad to find some new outlet.
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
17
7.2
People treated as easily replaced in war or danger
How Expendable
46
6.7
- Offensive
7
8.5
29
4.3
8
5.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a metaphorical composition: 'fodder' (food for animals) combined with 'cannon' evokes the image of people being 'fed' to artillery, so the idea of expendable troops is inferable from the parts. This requires mapping a concrete food metaphor onto human lives—a common cross-linguistic metaphor (e.g., Spanish 'carne de cañón')—so the meaning is partly predictable but still idiomatic and not fully compositional for learners.
Etymology
The phrase cannon fodder compares soldiers to fodder, the food for animals, and imagines them as food for cannons, a strong picture of people being used up in battle. That's why it means 'soldiers treated as things to be used up and likely to be killed'.