Definition of "cadet" in English

noun

1. A student at a military school who is training to be an officer.

2. (chiefly history) A younger or youngest son, who would not inherit as a firstborn son would.

3. (in compounds, chiefly in genealogy) Junior. (See also the heraldic term cadency.)

   • a cadet branch of the family

4. (archaic, US, slang) A young man who makes a business of ruining girls to put them in brothels.

5. (New Zealand, historical) A young gentleman learning sheep farming at a station; also, any young man attached to a sheep station.

6. (Australia) A participant in a cadetship.