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When France's King Louis XIV appointed Lieutenant Colonel Jean Martinet to be inspector general of the infantry in the late 17th century, he made a wise choice. As a drillmaster, Martinet trained his troops to advance into battle in precise linear formations and to fire in volleys only upon command, thus making the most effective use of inaccurate muskets—and making the French army one of the best on the continent. He also gave English a new word. Martinet has been used synonymously with "strict disciplinarian" since the early 18th century.

Examples of martinet in a Sentence

The prison's warden was a cruel martinet.

Recent Examples on the Web Evelyn Gresham is a successful lawyer and something of a martinet. — Cressida Connolly, WSJ, 23 Oct. 2020 His father, a martinet but also a stabilizing influence, died when Hernandez was in college. — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 21 Jan. 2020 The sovereign, a playboy martinet, demands nothing less. — The Economist, 19 Oct. 2019 The Eagle — Culver Creek’s martinet, played by Timothy Simons — then exclaims, foreshadowing the shenanigans the group will get up to along the series. — Sara Delgado, Teen Vogue, 12 Sep. 2019 Roberts, a flinty, fastidious martinet with a hardscrabble background and a knack for making himself indispensable to powerful men, befriended Jones and took up the cause. — Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 14 June 2019 The Efficiency Paradox What Big Data Can’t Do By Edward Tenner (Knopf; 304 pages; $27.95) Balwani, with whom Holmes was romantically linked, was a martinet in snow-wash jeans. — Stephen Phillips, SFChronicle.com, 22 June 2018 As a war president, Wilson was both moralist and martinet. — Richard Norton Smith, WSJ, 19 Apr. 2018 FloTrack has some April 1st fun with the IAAF rules martinets. — OregonLive.com, 1 Apr. 2018 See More

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