cannon fodder

名词 n.
中文释义

英文释义

名词 n.
  1. Military forces considered to be expendable. uncountable
    — "A foolish old half-pay officer," boomed Sir Hilton. "Go back to your club, sir, and play bridge with other superannuated cannon-fodder, sir."
  2. Any group of contestants that have no hope of success. broadly,uncountable
    — It is arrogant to simply dismiss San Marino and say they should not be playing qualifiers at this level but it is hard to see what England and manager Southgate learned from this one-sided, rather soulless experience against a team who were little more than cannon fodder.
  3. Artillery ammunition. rare,uncountable
  4. An expendable minor character primarily included to make the protagonist(s) stand out. slang,uncountable

词形变化

cannonfodder alternative cannon-fodder alternative

词源

Mid-19th century, from cannon (“artillery piece”) + fodder (“food”), a calque of German Kanonenfutter, itself possibly a calque of English food for powder. See the German for more.
0 次浏览 数据来源: Wiktionary