From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsappersap‧per /ˈsæpə $ -ər/ noun [countable] British English PMAa soldier whose job involves digging and building
Examples from the Corpus
sapper• Bill Noyes witnessed a sapper at-tack in late February against the perimeter held by his mechanized unit.• Then, as John began to climb to where the other had been, Nicholas felt his way to the fallen sapper.• Though the smaller group of sappers was between us and the village, direct fire to-ward the village was sparse.• The other sapper was looking at his partner.• One of the sappers went with him.• Jim Murphy witnessed the disorder: I remember the sapper attack on the base camp quite well.• The sappers crept a little closer, past the vacated ambush site.• The sappers who had been involved in the preparation work could then go forward to see the devastation caused by the explosives.Origin sapper (1600-1700) → SAP1 