Definition of Militia

Militia

In the widest sense, the whole military force of a nation, including both those engaged in military service as a business, and those competent and available for such service; specifically, the body of citizens enrolled for military instruction and discipline, but not subject to be called into actual service except in emergencies.

Military service; warfare.

Related Definitions:

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Militia Quotations

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
Thomas Jefferson

The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.
John Adams

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.
James Madison

By the last returns to the Department of War the militia force of the several States may be estimated at 800,000 men - infantry, artillery, and cavalry.
James Monroe

I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.
George Mason

Hizbullah is not a militia.
Bashar al-Assad

What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.
Elbridge Gerry

We are also assisting the refugees who have fled across the border to Chad. As many of them have been subject to attacks by militia crossing from Sudan, UNHCR is mounting a major logistical operation to establish camps and transfer refugees away from the border zone.
Jan Egeland

Just able barely to mount a horse and ride about a little in the spring of 1866, my life was threatened daily, and I was forced to go heavily armed. The whole country was then full of militia, robbing, plundering and killing.
Jesse James

Secondly, the Government of Sudan should commit to the disarmament and control of the Janjaweed militia and ensure that the targeting of civilians ceases immediately.
Jan Egeland

The time frame is very small to disarm the militia, to bring about a security situation in which the governing council, the 24 Iraqis or however many others they appoint, can govern the country.
Richard Lugar

I am a Colorado native, and, no, I did not vote for the anti-gay amendment or the same-sex marriage ban, and I am not a member of a militia.
Connie Willis