brass hat

plural brass hats · alternative brasshat

1. metonymicallyslanggovernmentA high-ranking officer. Commander.

   "American brass hats make no secret that they regard outer space as a potential theater of military operations," it said.

   1982, Countdown begins for Space Shuttle, The New York Times

   3 more examples

   He raised his first storm in January 1967 when, as leader of the "Save the Argylls" campaign, he claimed the brass hats had driven the regiment's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Colin "Mad Mitch" Mitchell, into resignation.

   2006, Andrew Roth, Obituary: Lord Monro of Langholm, The Guardian

   This being Libya, there were conflicting signals yesterday – an army brass hat captured here, a counter-attack by Gaddafi forces there […]

   2011, Andrew Roth, Gaddafi faces endgame as he bribes civilians to fight for him, The Independent

   […] with particularly young Thais—including 3.3 million first-time voters—backing the upstart party’s bold pledges to weaken the political role of brass hats and amend the nation’s strict royal defamation law […]

   2023 May 15, Charlie Campbell, “The Voting in Thailand’s Election Is Finished, But the Politicking Is Just Beginning”, in Time, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2023

   Synonyms: brass