Short-timer

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A soldier during the Vietnam War who had less than two months to serve. US, historical, slang

    "Almost every Marine in Viet Nam carries a short-timer’s calendar of his tour of duty—the usual 365 days—plus a bonus of 20 days for being a Marine."

  2. 2
    A person who would not be required to do a difficult or dangerous task.
  3. 3
    An employee who has given notice of their intent to leave. colloquial
  4. 4
    The customer of a prostitute. colloquial

Synonyms

All synonyms
all-nighterfaregonkjohnmongerprostitute's client

Example

More examples

"Almost every Marine in Viet Nam carries a short-timer’s calendar of his tour of duty—the usual 365 days—plus a bonus of 20 days for being a Marine."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.