army brat

army brat

A child whose parent is in the army. The phrase is often associated with the fact that such a child has lived in many different places (as relocations are common for members of the military). After being an army brat, I'm very happy to have lived in the same place for the last 20 years. Yep, Susie's an army brat—her father is a decorated soldier.
See also: army
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

army brat

n. a child born to a parent in the army. (Such a child will live in many different places.) I was an army brat and went to seven different schools before I got out of high school.
See also: army
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

Army brat

A child of a member of the regular army. Although brat is not a flattering term, the phrase is not at all derogatory. It dates from the first half of the 1900s. Because regular army personnel often are transferred from station to station, their children frequently had to change schools, and this circumstance is what is most often referred to. A New York Post article in 1971 had it, “I was in sixteen different grammar schools. Then I’d be whisked away because my father was in the Army and I was an Army brat.”
See also: army
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • boomerang child
  • love child
  • babysit for
  • babysit for (someone)
  • an army marches on its stomach
  • army
  • Marches
  • expecting a child
  • problem child
  • child
References in periodicals archive
There is a sense of adventure, and also a lot of money for the arts here." Having been an army brat and "sort of a nomad," she confesses that she's "never really settled down anywhere.
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As an Army Nurse, Navy Wife, and Army Brat, I have been ingrained in the military procedures.
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Little Known Facts About Me: As an Army brat, I had the opportunity to attend 10 different schools in three countries, and play on two national, and one world, championship baseball teams before the age of 18.
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A self-described "army brat," she is largely inspired by her time spent among the first wave of returning Iraq war veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
As Ranks of Military Veterans Swell, Colleges Begin to Reach Out
He was a career Army brat, who'd lived all over, most recently in Germany, maybe the only kid in the whole dadgum school who'd taken a breath outside the United States of Texas.
Born to be wild: Big Jim Holt has sailed the seven seas, hit a gusher in Texas oil and experienced the economic crash of 2008 firsthand, but he's never as alive as when he's on the open road
Arthurson is an army brat, living both on base and in small communities, experiencing first-hand racism and shame.
Actions of flawed main character keep readers--and writer--guessing
As an Army Brat, I learned early on about the five "Ps." The military is big on abbreviations and acronyms, and the five Ps translate to: Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
President's message: we believe that technological literacy can best be achieved in a hands-on laboratory environment and that we are the ones best prepared to deliver it
They talked about Camus and Sartre and Nietzsche--people I hadn't heard much about in my life as an Army brat and people my mildly anti-intellectual father would have disdained had anyone explained to him who they were.
Beyond intellectualism
Sunny doesn't just cook for real, she keeps it real and is the first to say she owes much of her current success to her background as an Army brat and an Air Force broadcaster.
Keeping it real: Air Force veteran brings Sunny demeanor to food network
For a long time, I had a spiel that went something like this: I'm an Army brat so I'm not from anywhere.
Living the military life: what's life like for girls in military families?
Describing herself an "army brat", she spent her childhood travelling on troop ships.
Joanna' s of queen the Nile
At each stop along the way Haags anecdotes sparkle with detail and transmit the excitement and wonder of being an army brat frequently on the road.
Peggy's Wartime Memories
But her parents are unfailingly critical and maddeningly contradictory, and she suffers the isolation and loneliness of an Army brat, constantly being uprooted and losing all her friends.
The Young and the Bi
Only Casey is an "Army brat"--and that with a bitter twist as his father, a major general, died in a helicopter crash in Vietnam.
The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army
His English was good because he'd learned his from his mother, an American army brat who'd married his father at seventeen.
Anna Winger. This Must Be the Place