- connected with people who are not members of the armed forces or the police
- He left the army and returned to civilian life.
- The bombs resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties.
- He condemned the attacks on civilian targets.
Word Originlate Middle English (denoting a practitioner of civil law): from Old French civilien, in the phrase droit civilien ‘civil law’. The current sense arose in the early 19th cent.Definitions on the go
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civilian