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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
But unlike what was often the case in the first American season of The Traitors, the newbies here aren’t mere cannon fodder. Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 7 Jan. 2025 The first is the proxy war against Russia that uses Ukrainians as cannon fodder in a U.S.-led campaign to plant hostile NATO nations near Russia’s western border. Karen Parker Lears, Harper's Magazine, 2 Dec. 2024 Putin has been forced to recruit more than 100,000 convicts from Russia's prisons in a bid to feed his war machine with cannon fodder. Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 16 Dec. 2024 It’s filled with horrific images of life in the tunnels, where just waiting to die in awful conditions became its own kind of torture; the film emphasizes the experiences of soldiers who were treated as cannon fodder by those in command. Keith Phipps, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for cannon fodder 

Word History

First Known Use

1847, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of cannon fodder was in 1847

Dictionary Entries Near cannon fodder

Cite this Entry

“Cannon fodder.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cannon%20fodder. Accessed 14 Jan. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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