Both Uses of
martial
in
The Scarlet Letter
- The brave soldier had already numbered, nearly or quite, his three-score years and ten, and was pursuing the remainder of his earthly march, burdened with infirmities which even the martial music of his own spirit-stirring recollections could do little towards lightening.†
Chpt Intr. *
- Its ranks were filled with gentlemen who felt the stirrings of martial impulse, and sought to establish a kind of College of Arms, where, as in an association of Knights Templars, they might learn the science, and, so far as peaceful exercise would teach them, the practices of war.†
Chpt 22
Definition:
-
(martial) relating to war or soldiersmost commonly seen in these expressions:
- "court martial" -- a military court that tries military personnel using military law (which is different than civilian law)
- "martial law" -- the body of law imposed by the military over civilian affairs which can be declared to replace ordinary civilian law in a time of crisis