trainband

English

Etymology

Apparently a contraction of trained band.

Noun

trainband (plural trainbands)

1. (now historical) A company of trained civilian militia operating in England and North America between the 16th and the 18th centuries.
   • 1782, William Cowper, The Diverting History of John Gilpen:

     A train-band captain eke was he / Of famous London town.

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

     Another said that he should be glad to know how the Devonshire trainbands, who had fled in confusion before Monmouth's scythemen, would have faced the household troops of Lewis

Anagrams

• Brandtian, drinabant, intraband