cannon fodder

noun

Updated on: 14 Apr 2018

Definition of cannon fodder

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

See cannon fodder defined for English-language learners

Examples of cannon fodder in a Sentence

The poorly trained forces are little more than cannon fodder.

Recent Examples of cannon fodder from the Web

Yet a 64-team women’s tournament still looks like a bloated exercise in gender equity that only underscores the enormous differences between the teams with the big guns and those that annually act as cannon fodder.

— tim sullivan, The Courier-Journal, "Women's basketball needs madness – not sameness. NCAA Tournament is still too mismatched," 15 Mar. 2018
Soldiers are fighting to preserve monarchies and a class system that views them as little more than cannon fodder.

— gary thompson, Philly.com, "'Journey's End': In the trenches with WWI soldiers," 28 Mar. 2018
This bracket buster was for all 135 other 16-seeds that had served as cannon fodder for the blue bloods of the sport since the field expanded to 64 teams (and now 68) in 1985.

— stephen schroats, star-telegram, "It's 'One Shining Moment' that will live in NCAA tournament history | Fort Worth Star-Telegram," 17 Mar. 2018
No one’s dismissing the Rockets as a novelty, a regular season mirage, or cannon fodder for a Warriors team bound to spring to life in the postseason.

— nathaniel friedman, GQ, "The Rockets Are Exactly the Kind of Wake-Up Call the Warriors Need," 15 Mar. 2018
Employees disdained their bosses for earning high six figures while temps were cycled through abusive shows like cannon fodder.

— boris kachka, The Cut, "Do As I Say, Not As I Do," 5 Feb. 2018
The pain of our most vulnerable citizens has been turned into political cannon fodder.

— wes moore, TIME.com, "America, Out In the Cold," 17 Dec. 2016
In Syria, the Islamic State’s Central Asian recruits are often given menial jobs or used as cannon fodder.

— andrew e. kramer, New York Times, "New York Attack Turns Focus to Central Asian Militancy," 1 Nov. 2017
Every judge is just cannon fodder for the big show.

— dahlia lithwick, Slate Magazine, "Neil Gorsuch Was Hatched in a Federalist Society Lab," 22 Mar. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cannon fodder.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of cannon fodder

circa 1888

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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CANNON FODDER Defined for English Language Learners

cannon fodder

noun

Definition of cannon fodder for English Language Learners

: soldiers who are sent into battle even though it is likely that they will die

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