volunteer

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volunteer one volunteer is worth two pressed men proverbial saying, early 18th century; a pressed man was someone forcibly enlisted by the press gang, a body of men which in the 18th and 19th centuries was employed to enlist men forcibly into service in the army or navy.
Volunteer State informal name for Tennessee, given in allusion to the large number of volunteers contributed by Tennessee to the Mexican War of 1847.

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