military engineer
1
4.4
- noun
- /ˈmɪlɪˌtɛri ɪnˈdʒɪnɪr/
:
ingeniero militar
- The base relied heavily on military engineers to ensure that the roads and buildings were safe and functional.
- French military engineers
- U.S. military engineers
Examples
-
The near-2,000-year-old legacy of this simply named colony was eventually buried beneath the rocky Crimean soil and left almost undisturbed until the late eighteenth century, when military engineers sent by Catherine the Great arrived to survey the peninsula.
Academic text (2002) -
You were a military engineer at Torus.
-
He used to be a military engineer for Torus.
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He thought of them more as military engineers than frontline troops.
Fiction book (1992) -
This fortress was built by Vauban, a military engineer at the service of Louis XIV.
Blog text (15) -
Within a week, Khartoum had agreed to the deployment of more than 3,000 UN troops, including 275 Chinese military engineers, to Darfur.
Academic text (2008) -
Then, in early 2007, after a dialogue about the region between the U.S. State Department and the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Beijing agreed to send more than 300 Chinese military engineers to Darfur, the first non-African peacekeepers committed to the UN operation.
Academic text (2011) -
CAREFUL OPERATION: A team of Libyan experts and military engineers dumped fuel from expired SA-2 missiles under the supervision of the United Nations in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday.
Blog text (1) -
Military engineers play a crucial role in constructing bridges and repairing facilities during conflicts.
-
After the earthquake, military engineers were sent to assess the damage and assist in the recovery efforts.
Synonyms
1
3.8
A soldier who builds bridges, roads, and walls for army use
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is a straightforward composition of 'military' (relating to soldiers/war) and 'engineer' (a person who designs or maintains systems), so a learner who knows both words can infer an engineer who works for or within the armed forces. This noun phrase follows regular English compounding patterns and has clear parallels in many languages, making it immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Military engineer comes from soldiers who did engineering work for the army: military means the army and engineer means a person with tools and plans who builds, fixes, or clears obstacles. So, imagine someone with tools building a bridge for troops, and you can see why military engineer means 'a member of the armed forces who builds, repairs, or clears military works'.