take the shilling

take the shilling (third-person singular simple present takes the shilling, present participle taking the shilling, simple past took the shilling, past participle taken the shilling)

1. (UK, historical) To enlist as a soldier by accepting a shilling from the recruiting officer.
   • 2020 June 17, Christian Wolmar, “The strategy of 'don't use the railways' must be reversed...”, in Rail, page 44:

     My earlier warnings, both in RAIL and in an article I wrote for The Times, have not fallen on deaf ears. There are many people (I suspect most) in the [rail] industry who recognise that telling people not to use their trains will cause lasting damage, but they are silenced publicly because they are now taking the Government's shilling.

1. “take the King's shilling”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.