cannon foddernoun [ U ]
uk/ˈkæn.ən ˌfɒd.ər/us/ˈkæn.ən ˌfɑː.dɚ/If you describe soldiers as cannon fodder, you mean that they are not considered important by their officers and are sent into war without their leaders worrying if they die.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
People of little importance
- a cog in a/the machine idiom
- be past your sell-by date idiom
- cipher
- inferior
- lightweight
- mediocrity
- minnow
- nothing
- past
- pawn
- pipsqueak
- plaything
- poor
- poor relation idiom
- pygmy
- unknown
- waste
- waste of space idiom
- waster
- worm
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Soldiers & people who fight in wars
Examples from literature
- Don't allow them to use you as cannon fodder.
- I would not have them shot.' Much has been made of a statement that I declared that men were fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder.
- The common people—the cannon fodder, the men who would die, and the women who would weep: they should be given something more than the privilege of either cheering platform patriots or being summoned for interrupting public meetings.
- Wasn't he a bigger asset to America as an alive engineer, an expert in his work, than as mere cannon fodder, one of thousands to be shot into junk in a morning's "activity"—just one of them?