Definition of "armed forces" []

• The military forces of a country. Also called armed services. (noun-plural)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Within eighteen months of arriving at Defense, he had two wars on his hands Panama and the Gulf, even while facing the reality of having to adaptand downsizethe armed forces to the new, postCold War world."
• "Besides his two small brigades of infantry, he had the corps of cadets of the Virginia Military Institute and two badly mounted and poorly armed forces of cavalry, under John McCausland and John Imboden."
• "Admiral Kinney was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and of the National War College and had served after his retirement from the armed forces as professor of law and policy science at the State University of New York Fort Schuyler."