I. |välən.|ti(ə)r, -iə noun
( -s )
Etymology: obsolete French voluntaire (now volontaire ), from voluntaire, adjective, voluntary, from Latin voluntarius — more at voluntary
1. : one who enters into or offers himself for any service of his own free will: as
a. : one who enters into military service voluntarily but who is then subject to discipline and regulations like other soldiers — opposed to conscript
b.
(1) : one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal interest, duty, or authority with respect to it : an intruder in a transaction who has no legal concern or interest to advance or to protect (as where one renders a service without any express or implied agreement for compensation or seeks to become the servant of another without his assent or pays the debt of a stranger)
(2) : one who receives a conveyance or transfer of property without giving valuable consideration : a gratuitous grantee or transferee : donee
2. : a volunteer plant
oats may persist as a volunteer for several years
3. usually capitalized : an officer or member of the Volunteers of America organized in 1896 along military lines for evangelistic and philanthropic work
II. adjective
1. : of or relating to a volunteer : consisting of volunteers : voluntary
a volunteer fire department
volunteer advice
volunteer work
2. : growing spontaneously without direct human control or supervision
in some areas there is still an adequate volunteer crop of game; in others management is essential
especially : growing without cultivation from seeds lost from a previous crop
a stand of volunteer wheat
III. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
transitive verb
: to offer or bestow voluntarily or without solicitation or compulsion
volunteer his services
volunteer help
volunteer information
volunteer a donation
intransitive verb
1. : to enter into or offer oneself for any service of one's own free will without solicitation or compulsion : offer
volunteer in an undertaking
volunteer for the army
2. : to grow spontaneously : form a volunteer crop or stand
many clovers perpetuate themselves indefinitely by volunteering