- a soldier or a group of soldiers who are trained to make quick attacks in enemy areas
- a commando raid on the north of the island
Oxford Collocations DictionaryCommando is used before these nouns:- raid
Word Originlate 18th cent. (denoting a militia, originally consisting of Boers in South Africa): from Portuguese (earlier form of comando), from commandar ‘to command’, from late Latin commandare from com- (expressing intensive force) + mandare ‘commit, command’.Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
Idioms
See commando in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarygo commando
- (informal, humorous) to not wear underwear under your clothes
Check pronunciation:
commando