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Glite Dictionary
🏈 Not chosen in draft 🪖 Not fit for service
undraftable

undraftable

7.4
Not able to be chosen for required military service because of health or legal reasons
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈdræftəbl/
  • US
: exento de reclutamiento
  • Many young men knew they were undraftable because of certain exemptions like being enrolled in college.

Examples

  • A plug for Reagan: his poor eyesight made him undraftable, but he served anyway, making training films.

    Blog text (30)

  • Lately at Alcoa, the management had realized how rare undraftable colorblind 43-year-olds who knew how to run a crew were, and my father came zinging home from the plant, newly made a foreman.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Due to his medical condition, he was deemed undraftable and didn't have to serve in the military.

  • Being undraftable allowed him to focus on his education without the distraction of military service.

Antonyms

draftable
  • US
1 4.9

Can be chosen in a sports or military draft

Surface Forms

undraftable positive

Morphology

undraftable = draftable (transparent) = un + draft + able

The final step is adding the negative prefix 'un-' to 'draftable'; the meaning is directly derivable as 'not able to be drafted' in the military sense.

Etymology

Undraftable breaks into un- ('not'), draft ('to pick or call up'), and -able ('able to'). So it describes someone who is 'not able to be selected' for military service, for example because of health, age, or legal rules.