rear echelon
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of rear echelon
First recorded in 1930–35
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Often in wars frontline soldiers are more disciplined than rear echelon troops who follow them.
From BBC
“When you are at war, you should have no racial division. And you don’t when you are in the heat of battle, but when you come back and you’re in the rear echelon, there is a lot of tension, and a lot of it really dealt with music,” he said.
From Washington Times
Everything from the rear echelon to the forward echelon and back was sent through us.
From Literature
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But in an era when combat no longer occurs on clear-cut front lines, supported by a rear echelon, these rules, established after World War II, have created some peculiar quandaries.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Meanwhile, the British enact high military farce; the war has lost its point, and the rear echelon is a jungle of red tape and "bumf" in which the conniver, the spiv and the apple polisher win the pips, the crowns and the privilege.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.