A citizen army refers to a military organization made up of ordinary citizens rather than professional soldiers. It means that regular people from the community are trained to defend their country when needed. Full definition
No Labels will do its part, growing our million - plus - member citizen army and empowering a «problem - solver caucus» in Congress that now numbers almost 80 members. (fortune.com)
The end of the draft after the Viet Nam debacle resulted in America having a professional rather than a citizen army. (nakedpastor.com)
No one knows whether ordinary soldiers, even from what is no longer in any normal sense a citizen army, would obey clearly illegal orders to oust an elected government or whether the officer corps would ever have sufficient confidence to issue such orders. (religion-online.org)