Grand Armyn.
/ɡrand ˈɑːmi/, U.S. /ˌɡrænd ˈɑrmi/ 1. A field army deployed in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, composed of both Royal Service troops and those employed by the East India Company, under the personal command of the commander-in-chief of Bombay, Madras, or India as a whole. Now historical.Used chiefly with reference to the Anglo-Mysore Wars and Anglo-Maratha Wars.
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society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > [noun] > other armies
Grand Army1792
Grande Armée1819
Grand Army1827
Nizam1840
Red Army1919
Reichswehr1920
ARVN1966
1792 J. Rennell Marches Brit. Armies in Penins. India 16 The Bombay army, Under General Abercromby, was to undertake the reduction of the country, lying on the west of the Gauts; and afterwards to co-operate with the grand army under General Medows.
1806 J. Orrok Let. 21 Jan. (1927) 82 We marched again from Hyderabad and proceeded by the river Godavery to join the Grand Army.
1821 V. Blacker Mahratta War i. iii. 51 His Lordship arrived on the 20th in the personal command of the Grand Army in the field.
1854 C. MacFarlane Hist. Brit. India (ed. 2) xxxii. 409 The army of the Bengal presidency, commanded by the governor-general in person, and called the ‘Grand Army,’ counted 40,000 fighting men.
1941 H. G. Rawlinson Hist. 3rd Battalion i. 12 In October 1817.., the 1/24th was sent to Cawnpore to join the Centre Division of the Grand Army for the Pindari Campaign.
2005 H. De Almeida & G. H. Gilpin Indian Renaissance 147/2 British plans for the Third Anglo-Mysore War began as early as 1785 with the planned appointment of Cornwallis as Governor-General of India and Commander-in-Chief of British forces (the Royal army and Company troops combined, now known as the Grand Army).
2. = Grande Armée n.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > [noun] > other armies
Grand Army1792
Grande Armée1819
Grand Army1827
Nizam1840
Red Army1919
Reichswehr1920
ARVN1966
1827 W. Scott Life Napoleon V. viii. 190 This formidable assemblage of troops, laying aside the appellation of the Army of England, was hereafter [sc. from 1805] distinguished by that of the Grand Army.
1850 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis II. v. 47 My father was a General of the Grand Army.
1860 G. A. Sala Baddington Peerage xlix Henceforth he carries his arm in a sling, and wears an extra ribbon, even as a veteran of Napoleon's grand army.
1971 Guardian 14 Jan. 2/4 La Madeleine..began as a neo-Greek temple dedicated to the glory of Napoleon's Grand Army.
1980 Times 5 Dec. 11/5 The breath-catching moment when the screen is suddenly multiplied to reveal a great panorama of the Grand Army on the Alps.
3. U.S. In full Grand Army of the Republic. An association of veterans who served in the Union army or navy during the American Civil War, formed at Decatur, Illinois, in 1866. Now historical.
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1866 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Daily Sentinel 8 June The constitution of the Grand Army of the Republic, with sundry amendments, was adopted by the State League.
a1902 F. Norris Pit (1903) iii. 83 Gretry was a large, placid, smooth-faced man, stolid as an ox; inevitably dressed in blue serge,..a Grand Army button in his lapel.
1904 N.Y. Evening Post 30 May 2 In every city where a Grand Army post is located the veterans marched to the cemeteries.
1911 H. S. Harrison Queed xxi. 263 A Grand Army man stood in the press on the sidewalk.
1990 S. King Stand (new ed.) ii. xlv. 487 Many of these men, Grand Army of the Republic veterans, had eaten more than a few goober peas during their time in the service.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1792