A payment to a person for service rendered. Formerly used widely, e.g. for the salary or fee paid to… spec. The pay of a soldier. Chiefly plural. to…

Military. To place (a weapon, etc.) upon the shoulder. Also absol. †Also in passive of a soldier: To have his musket shouldered.

to take service: (originally) to enlist under a military commander, to join a fighting force; (later also more generally) to engage to serve a…

reflexive and intransitive (for reflexive) To have one's name entered upon the list of a military body; to engage for military service; = enlist, v.…

queen's shilling, a shilling formerly given to a recruit when enlisting during the reign of a queen; (hence) the rewards of military life generally…

intransitive for reflexive. To have one's name inscribed in a list of recruits; to engage for military service. Also transferred and figurative.

As material for gun-stocks. Hence colloquial to shoulder walnut: to enlist as a soldier. Obsolete.

absol. (in sense 15a or 15b).

to join up: to enlist in the army.

To put (a person) on his or her oath; technical among ‘Friends,’ to put him on his solemn declaration. Also, to administer the oath of allegiance…