brevet

plural brevets

1. A military document entitling a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but without an increase in pay.
2. A warrant from the government, granting a privilege, title, or dignity, as in France.
   1. broadlyAn authoritative grant or mark of recognition; a seal of approval.

      Delightful inducements to embark, fine chance for promotion, it seems—aye, a stove boat will make me an immortal by brevet.

      1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 7, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

      1 more example

      They came over to Massachusetts Bay in another vessel, and thus escaped the onus of that brevet nobility under which the successors of the Mayflower Pilgrims had descended.

      1873, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Charles Dudley Warner, chapter XXI, in The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 196

3. An organized, long-distance bicycle ride — not a race, but a test of endurance — which follows a designated but unmarked route passing through check points.

present singular third person brevets · participle present brevetting · participle present breveting · participle past brevetted · past brevetted · participle past breveted · past breveted

1. governmentTo promote by brevet.