Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of the US Marine Corps.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal A member of the United States Marine Corps.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps alteration of GI + (ma)rine.]

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Examples

  • “Trooper” seems very familiar, like calling a Marine “gyrene” or “jarhead” to his face: you better be good friends with the guy and you better be smiling.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Why Suspect When You Can Find Out? 2010

  • “Trooper” seems very familiar, like calling a Marine “gyrene” or “jarhead” to his face: you better be good friends with the guy and you better be smiling.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Why Suspect When You Can Find Out? 2010

  • Like one of my old pals who was a gyrene in the pits of WWII hell--Google the lost batallion and read about it--who told me it made him shuddered a bit to look around him and see all the fun things in his living room, his teevee, his stereo were made in Japan; hell, his Mercedes out in the driveway was made in Germany.

    Flying High The Daily Growler 2006

  • JFK must have been rolling already inside his soul knowing old scroundel LBJ had taken over the controls and that Jackie O and the kids were left stranded out on the tarmac of Love Field in Dallas named after a man named Love and not the physical emotion waiting for a gyrene helicopter to whisk them over to Air Force 2, if there was such a thing.

    A Day Beginning With Death and Horror The Daily Growler 2006

  • Nambu machine guns had a Marine company pinned down in the drizzle, chewing up the terrain around them and sometimes a gyrene, bottling up the entrance to the valley and clotting out the rest of the battalion.

    ONE SHOT-ONE KILL CHARLES W. SASSER CRAIG ROBERTS 1990

  • “Thank you,” I whispered to the memory of the wounded gyrene who bequeathed me his .38 pistol.

    ONE SHOT-ONE KILL CHARLES W. SASSER CRAIG ROBERTS 1990

  • The gentleman in question had stashed his latest find, a youthful marine, in a back bedroom along with the attaché cases, but the gyrene, under the mistaken impression that he was meant to be included in the revelry, kept popping up among the aristocracy of the American right like a stripper out of a birthday cake.

    Happy Days Are Here Again Dunne, John Gregory 1983

  • There was a gyrene behind me and he said, ‘Is this Whitey?’

    The Story of World War II Donald L. Miller 1945

  • There was a gyrene behind me and he said, ‘Is this Whitey?’

    The Story of World War II Donald L. Miller 1945

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  • The proud and committed marines

    All know what a leatherneck means.

    They cherish that name

    And combative fame

    They’ve earned as relentless gyrenes.

    April 28, 2018