British slang for a conscientious objector — someone who refuses military service on moral, ethical, or religious grounds. The shortened form 'conchy' was widely used during both World Wars, sometimes affectionately among those who shared the objector's views, and sometimes as a term of contempt from those who considered refusal cowardly or unpatriotic. Today it carries more historical than active usage, surfacing most often in discussions of wartime history, pacifism, and civil liberties.
His grandfather had been a conchy in the Second World War and was quietly proud of it for the rest of his life.
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(slang) A conscientious objector.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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