Meaning
To gather, summon or energize a group of people for a shared effort; to raise the morale of a team, followers or allies and get them moving together. Used of colleagues, volunteers or friends as much as of soldiers, it stresses reassembling and re-inspiring people who are scattered, tired or discouraged. Warm and approving rather than aggressive, and usually an imperative. The military metaphor reads as mild office humour, so it suits informal pep talks better than formal prose. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Built on the military verb rally, to bring scattered soldiers back into order after a rout or charge. The OED first records this verb in 1599, in the writing of the historian John Hayward - verified directly - a borrowing of French rallier, re- plus alier, to reunite, with the military sense tagged to the late 1500s; the order to rally broken units remained standard battle drill for three centuries. Rallying language saturated the American Civil War: George F. Root's 1862 marching song Battle Cry of Freedom, also known as Rally 'Round the Flag, urges 'we'll rally round the flag, boys' and sold over 700,000 copies of sheet music. The full figurative phrase about non-military groups is a twentieth-century workplace and political staple; Farlex glosses it as calling others together to join or lend support, an allusion to reassembling dispersed soldiers, usually as an imperative.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- rally round the flag
- rally the team
Usage Examples
- With the deadline moved forward, Priya called a quick huddle to rally the troops.
- The mayor rallied the troops with a speech about what one final push could win.
- Any manager can assign tasks; a real leader knows how to rally the troops when a project stalls.