dead soldier

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dead soldier (plural dead soldiers)

1. (idiomatic, slang) An empty container, usually a bottle or can which contained an alcoholic beverage.
   • 1968 — Flesh And Blood By William Handley (1968) p.15

     Another Dead Soldier! (Lays the bottle gently on its side.)

   • 1999, Elliott Smith, “Baby Britain”, in XO:

     We knocked another couple back / The dead soldiers lined up on the table

   • 2000 — Thus Spake the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse Reader 1988-1998 By Andrei Codrescu, Laura Rosenthal (2000) p. 344

     When my mother drinks beer, she peeks in the bottle to make sure it's a dead soldier.

   • 2002 — Thread of the Spider By Val Davis (2002) p. 117

     By the time the pint was a dead soldier, Decker had the man's life story.

• dead marine