volunteer

1. a person who does something, especially helping other people, willingly and…

Meaning of

volunteer

in English


volunteer


noun


[

C

]


uk

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˌvɒl.ənˈtɪə

r


/


us

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˌvɑː.lənˈtɪr

/


B2

a

person

who does something,

especially


helping

other

people

,

willingly

and without being

forced

or

paid

to do it:


The Health

clinic

is relying on volunteers to

run

the

office

and

answer

the

phones

.


Since it would be a

highly


dangerous


mission

, the

Lieutenant


asked

for volunteers.


It’s a volunteer

army

with no

paid


professionals

.


Compare



conscript


verb



mainly

UK



draftee


US

As a volunteer on the

childcare


project

, I really

saw


life

.

He

emphasized

that all the

people

taking

part

in the

research

were volunteers.

We’re

saving


money

by using volunteers.

She

placed

her

name

on the

list

of volunteers.

Charities such as

Oxfam

are always

trying

to

recruit

volunteers to

help

in

their


work

.


Organizations – charities


See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:


Freedom to act


volunteer


verb


uk

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˌvɒl.ənˈtɪə

r


/


us

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˌvɑː.lənˈtɪr

/


C1

to

offer

to do something that you do not have to do, often without having been

asked

to do it and/or without

expecting


payment

:


[

+ to infinitive

]


During the

emergency

many

staff

volunteered

to


work

through the

weekend

.


He volunteered

for

the

army


(= he

joined


even

though he did not have to)

.


I volunteered myself

for

the

position

of Health and Safety

Representative

.


humorous


My

friends

volunteered me

to

do the

talking

.


[

T

]

to give

information

without being

asked

:


If I were you, I wouldn’t volunteer any

details

of what

happened

.


[

+ speech

]


“I

saw

her going out of the

main


entrance


half

an

hour

ago,” he volunteered.

You can

accuse

me of

cowardice

, but I still wouldn’t volunteer to

fight

in a

war

.

I volunteered to do the

washing

up.

Many women volunteered to

work

as

nurses

in the

war

.

Did anybody volunteer to

tidy

up?

They all volunteered to

help

with the

digging

.


Accepting & agreeing


See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:


Saying & uttering

(Definition of

volunteer

from the

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus


© Cambridge University Press)

volunteer

| American Dictionary


volunteer


noun


[

C

]


us

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˌvɑl·ənˈtɪr

/

a

person

who does something,

esp

. for other

people

or for an

organization

,

willingly

and without being

forced

or

paid

to do it:


The

charity

relies on volunteers to

run

the

office

and

answer

the

phones

.


volunteer


verb


[

I/T

]


us

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˌvɑl·ənˈtɪər

/

to do something,

esp

. for other

people

or for an

organization

,

willingly

and without being

forced

or

paid

to do it:


[

+ to infinitive

]


During the

emergency

a lot of

people

volunteered to

work

through the

night

.


[

T

]


Three

physicians

volunteered

their


services

.

(Definition of

volunteer

from the

Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary


© Cambridge University Press)

volunteer

| Business English


volunteer


noun


[

C

]


uk

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˌvɒlənˈtɪə

r


/


us

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

a

person

who does a

job

or some

work

without being

paid

or

forced

to do it:


They

employ

1,000

people

and 23,000 volunteers.


I will

ask

for volunteers to

help

with the

search

.


volunteer


verb


uk

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˌvɒlənˈtɪə

r


/


us

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

to

offer

to do something without being

paid

for it or without being

asked

to do it:


If they’re

short

of

helpers

, I could volunteer.


volunteer to do sth


I volunteered to do the

accounting

.


volunteer for sth


He volunteered for early

retirement

.


volunteer sb for/to do sth


He volunteered his

wife

for the

job

.


More

residents

need to

step


forward

and

volunteer

time


and

energy

.


volunteer


adjective


uk

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˌvɒlənˈtɪə

r


/


us

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

used to

describe

someone who

works

without

expecting


payment

, or the

work

they do:


volunteer

staff

/

workers


a volunteer doctor/firefighter/lawyer


The

legal


advice


centres

are

staffed

by volunteer

lawyers

.


Her

volunteer

work


took up most of her

free


time

.


Compare



paid

(Definition of

volunteer

from the

Cambridge Business English Dictionary


© Cambridge University Press)

Examples

of


volunteer

volunteer


Promoting transformative learning enables community volunteering to provide meaningful roles for seniors, and promotes citizenship participation and the social economy in an ageing society.


The first experiments were those which the volunteers knew they would be subjected to.


More examples


Fewer examples


Many assumptions – about the volunteers’ youth, gender, class, religion, ethnicity, politics, and motives, and how these may have changed over time – therefore remain untested.


Exploring the ways that older people contribute as informal volunteers in the community helps us understand the breadth and diversity of these activities.


All three books should be read by professionals and volunteers concerned with the elderly.


Assistance from family members, friends, paid care givers, and volunteers in the care of terminally ill patients.


To an extraordinary extent, they have used local volunteers, in tandem with public professionals, to deliver social services.


Although available to all volunteers who have expenses, in practice honorary executives of voluntary agencies are those most likely to receive the payment.


Ninety-five people volunteered to participate and answered a face-to-face questionnaire in the presence of an interpreter, after written informed consent was obtained.


However, everything depended on human cases to provide infective material and volunteers to detect it.


Effects of catecholamine depletion on alertness and mood in rested and sleep deprived normal volunteers.


The feedback from volunteers in our target audience, advanced and intermediate users, suggests that we may have achieved our cognitive objectives.


In every community there are personnel (for example, key workers, volunteers, ‘community gatekeepers’) who are also consulted by its members at times of need.


The volunteers, on the other hand, were at least from the next generation, compared to the cultivated variety from which they were lost.


The role of mass media and the impact of volunteers are discussed in the next two chapters.


See all examples of

volunteer

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations

with


volunteer

volunteer

These are words often used in combination with

volunteer

.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.


active volunteer


Whether the respondent suffered from chronic diseases was not however related to his or her probability of being an

active


volunteer

.


citizen volunteer


This undoubtedly will result in a

citizen


volunteer

reserve with a substantial preponderance of what are called teeth arms.

From the

Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the

Open Parliament Licence v3.0


committed volunteers


The employees and 5,000 unpaid, committed volunteers have a full work load.

From the

Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the

Open Parliament Licence v3.0

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.


See all collocations with

volunteer

Translations of

volunteer

in Chinese (Traditional)
自願參加者,(尤指幫助別人的)志願者, 自願做, 無償做…


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in Chinese (Simplified)
自愿参加者,(尤指帮助别人的)志愿者, 自愿做, 无偿做…


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in Spanish
ofrecerse voluntario para, voluntario, -a…


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in Portuguese
oferecer-se, prontificar-se, ser voluntário…


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in more languages

in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Arabic
in Czech
in Danish
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Korean
in Italian
in Russian
進んで引き受ける, ボランティア…


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gönüllü yapmak/olmak, orduya gönüllü kaydolmak/katılmak, istenilmeden bilgi vermek…


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volontaire [masculine-feminine], bénévole [masculine-feminine], se porter volontaire…


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oferir-se voluntari per a, voluntari, -ària…


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يَتَطَوَّع, مُتَطَوِّع…


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dobrovolně se (při)hlásit, poskytnout, dobrovolník…


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melde sig frivilligt, komme med, (en) frivillig…


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menawarkan diri, mengajukan, sukarelawan…


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สมัครใจทำ (บางสิ่ง), รับอาสา, อาสาสมัคร…


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tình nguyện, xung phong làm, quân tình nguyện…


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zgłaszać się na ochotnika, powiedzieć (bez pytania ), wolontariusz/ka…


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bersukarela, memberikan, sukarela…


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sich freiwillig anbieten, sich erlauben, der/die Freiwillige…


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frivillig [masculine], frivillig arbeider [masculine], melde seg frivillig…


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자원하다, 자원봉사자…


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offrirsi spontaneamente, volontario, -a…


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вызваться сделать что-либо, поступать добровольцем, высказывать что-либо добровольно…


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