cannon fodder
noun
1
: soldiers regarded or treated as expendable in battle
2
: an expendable or exploitable person, group, or thing
celebrities who have become cannon fodder for the tabloids
Examples of cannon fodder in a Sentence
The poorly trained forces are little more than cannon fodder.
Recent Examples on the Web
Living semester to semester, pay shrinking, workload metastasising, cannon fodder in a departmental forever war.
—
Book Marks
august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
They were convinced that I would be shot on Ukrainian territory or sent to the front as cannon fodder.
—Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today, 24 Aug. 2025
The all-women’s show had a chip on its shoulder after the first women’s PLE in seven years was rushed through a short build and moved to Sunday, essentially as cannon fodder for an increasingly bitter wrestling war.
—Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 16 July 2025
And in Massachusetts, taxpayers are budgetary cannon fodder.
—Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 9 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for cannon fodder
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Book Marks
august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
They were convinced that I would be shot on Ukrainian territory or sent to the front as cannon fodder.
—Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today, 24 Aug. 2025
The all-women’s show had a chip on its shoulder after the first women’s PLE in seven years was rushed through a short build and moved to Sunday, essentially as cannon fodder for an increasingly bitter wrestling war.
—Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 16 July 2025
And in Massachusetts, taxpayers are budgetary cannon fodder.
—Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 9 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for cannon fodder
Cite this Entry
“Cannon fodder.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cannon%20fodder. Accessed 8 Sep. 2025.
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