Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
a member of the armed forces who does not participate in combat (e.g. a chaplain or surgeon);
ADJECTIVE (2)
1.
used of civilians in time of war;
2.
member of armed forces whose duties do not include fighting as e.g. a chaplain or surgeon;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Noncombatant \Non*com"bat*ant\, n.
1. (Mil.) Any person connected with an army, or within the
lines of an army, who does not make it his business to
fight, as any one of the medical officers and their
assistants, chaplains, and others; also, any of the
citizens of a place occupied by an army; also, any one
holding a similar position with respect to the navy.
[1913 Webster]
2. A person not attached to a military unit, or not
participating in the military activities of a war; a
civilian; as, the bomb killed twenty noncombatants.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
noncombatant
adj 1: used of civilians in time of war
2: member of armed forces whose duties do not include fighting
as e.g. a chaplain or surgeon
n 1: a member of the armed forces who does not participate in
combat (e.g. a chaplain or surgeon)
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
21 Moby Thesaurus words for "noncombatant":
citizen, civilian, conciliatory, dovish, irenic, nonaggressive,
nonbelligerent, nonmilitant, nonresistant, nonresister, nonviolent,
pacific, pacifist, pacifistic, peace-loving, peaceable,
unbellicose, uncontentious, unhostile, unmilitant, unmilitary
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):
NON-COMBATANT, n. A dead Quaker.