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vol·un·teer

(vŏl′ən-tîr)

1. A person who performs or offers to perform a service voluntarily: an information booth staffed by volunteers; hospital volunteers.

2. A person who chooses to enter a branch of the military without being drafted or forced to do so by law.

3. Law A person who works without pay or who assumes an obligation to which that person is not a party or in which that person is not otherwise interested.

4. Botany A cultivated plant growing from self-sown or accidentally dropped seed.

adj.

1. Being, consisting of, or done by volunteers: volunteer firefighters; volunteer tutoring.

2. Botany Growing from self-sown or accidentally dropped seed. Used of a cultivated plant or crop.

v. vol·un·teered, vol·un·teer·ing, vol·un·teers

v. tr.

1. To give or offer to give voluntarily: volunteered their services; volunteer to give blood.

2. Informal To compel (someone) to do something: We were volunteered to do the dishes.

v. intr.

1. To perform or offer to perform a service of one's own free will.

2. To choose to enter military service of one's own free will.

3. To do charitable or helpful work without pay: Many retirees volunteer in community service and day care centers.

[Obsolete French voluntaire, from Old French, voluntary, from Latin voluntārius; see VOLUNTARY.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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