veteran

plural veterans

1. A person with long experience of a particular activity.

   The company's new hires were nervous, but the veterans were self-assured because, as one summarized it, "this isn't our first rodeo."

   1 more example

   Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.

   2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 25 Nov 2020, page 70

   Synonyms: old hand, old-timer, warhorse

   1. A person who has served in the armed forces, especially an old soldier who has seen long service.

      We honor veterans and senior citizens with a ten percent discount.

      1 more example

      For 55-year-old U.S. Army veteran Sae Joon Park, this was the hardest moment of his life. […] Park's story reflects both the challenges of life after combat and the perils that noncitizen veterans face if caught in the legal system — realities made harsher amid the Trump administration's push for record deportations.

      2025 June 24, Juliana Kim, “Purple Heart Army veteran self-deports after nearly 50 years in the U.S.”, in NPR

      Synonyms: old hand, old-timer, warhorse

2. figurativelyA group, animal, etc. with long experience of a particular activity.

   Their mules were clearly veterans. They seemed to know what to do even better than the teenage farmhand who was driving the team.

   2 more examples

   Most of the cars which we call "veterans" today were on view at the Motor Show of 1911.

   1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 87

   The label has often collaborated with other designers, like Australian shoemaker Teva and American woolwear veteran Pendleton.

   2018 April 1, Cristian Bonetto, Lonely Planet Pocket Copenhagen, →ISBN, page 81

1. not comparableHaving had long experience, practice, or service.

   The insinuating eloquence and delicate flattery of veteran diplomatists and courtiers.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter IV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Nothing could be more business-like than the construction of the stout dams, and nothing more gently rural than the limpid lakes, with the grand old forest trees marshalled round their margins like a veteran army that had marched down to drink, only to be stricken motionless at the water’s edge.

   1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad

   “That was in Casco,” his wife contradicted immediately. She spoke in the unmistakable tones of a veteran contradictor.

   1980, Stephen King, The Mist, Viking Press

2. not comparableOf or relating to former members of the military armed forces, especially those who served during wartime.

1. A village in Special Area No. 4, eastern Alberta, Canada.
2. A place in the United States:
   1. A ghost town in White Pine County, Nevada.
   2. A town in Chemung County, New York.
   3. A hamlet in Ulster County, New York.
   4. A census-designated place in Goshen County, Wyoming.
3. A rural locality in the Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia.