Definition of "condottiere" [con•dot•tie•re]

• A leader of mercenary soldiers between the 14th and 16th centuries. (noun)

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.

• "Hafner and Ardea have laid bare two detestable souls, the one of an infamous usurer, half German, half Dutch; the other of a degraded nobleman, in whom is revived some ancient 'condottiere'."
• "There was in his composition something of the mediæval "condottiere," and a good deal more of that Dugald Dalgetty whom Scott drew."
• "Representing the Serenissima, Giustiniani (unsuccessfully) petitioned Pope Pius II to pardon the condottiere, whose lands Venice considered the belly of its republic."