under arms
2
7.0
- idiom
- Jargon
:
en armas
- The Iraqi military currently keeps 400,000 men under arms, including almost 100,000 in the Republican Guard and the Special Republican Guard.
- men under arms
Examples
-
Like they say, "A country under arms is a polite country!"
Blog text (6) -
European countries profess to maintain two million men and women under arms, yet only about 110,000 are capable of being deployed abroad.
Academic text (2010) -
At no other time have so many Americans been under arms.
Academic text (2005) -
The mayor now moved with alacrity, and both the police and military were put under arms around the clock.
Academic text (2008) -
France would then have 600,000 men under arms.
Academic text (2010) -
We, on the other hand, have thousands of military aircraft, tens of thousands of men and women under arms, and eleven carrier air groups.
Blog text (11) -
From now on, soldiers would be permitted to cross the pomerium under arms, but nobody else.
-
Only now has Washington belatedly realized that this country of barely 20 million may have more than 1.2 million men under arms.
Academic text (1992) -
Captain Steele, put the entire garrison under arms at their posts of alarm.
-
The country had over one million soldiers under arms during the height of the conflict.
Synonyms
Antonyms
How Armed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'arms' clearly denotes weapons and the preposition 'under' can signal being 'in a state of', so a learner who knows both words could infer a meaning related to being armed. However the specific fixed phrase 'under arms' (military/archaic register) and the nuance of being 'ready for combat' is somewhat idiomatic and not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
The phrase under arms comes from the image of soldiers keeping their arms (weapons) under their coat or held at their side so they were ready to use them. So, to be under arms today means to be 'armed' and 'ready'.