boots on the ground
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.27 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
16
Letters
3
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The ground forces actually fighting in a war or conflict, rather than troops not engaged or other military action such as air strikes.
noun
The ground forces actually fighting in a war or conflict, rather than troops not engaged or other military action such as air strikes.
noun
Personnel operating in an area of interest.
noun
The state or condition of being physically present at a place of interest in order to ascertain the current situation.
Informal
noun
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see boots, on, ground.
Example Sentences
- "The Pentagon may say we have enough, but that's not what I'm hearing from the boots on the ground."
- "So often boots on the ground is the American Way."
- "At the same time, when options are considered, political parties and the media are interested in knowing whether boots on the ground is an option put on the table."
- "Eyes on the page matter, but nothing goes forward without boots on the ground. In my case, students wore the boots that mattered most. Jennifer Greer, a former student who worked for a records management consulting service, agreed to help me with the research and writing."
- "And while the number of international boots on the ground might have appeared to be large, spread across the vast and difficult territory of Darfur, those 20,000 troops and police looked much less adequate."
- "We need boots on the ground to make the border a real barrier. Ten thousand new Border Patrol agents have been authorized by Congress."
Etymology
First appears c. 1980 in the US. Attributed to the United States General Volney F. Warner, as quoted in the Christian Science Monitor (April 11, 1980) in reference to the Iranian hostage crisis