colonel

plural colonels · alternative obsolete coronel · alternative abbreviation col. · alternative abbreviation Col.

1. A commissioned officer in an armed military organization, typically the highest rank before flag officer ranks (generals). It is generally found in armies, air forces or naval infantry (marines).

   The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it. […] But there was not a more lascivious reprobate and gourmand in all London than this same Greystone.

   1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

2. historicalA military leader, distinct from the modern professional military rank.

   General Charles-Maximilian Fiennes was made colonel of the army.

   2009, Ranulph Fiennes, chapter 21, in Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expedition Round My Family, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 284

3. An honorary civilian title bestowed by some southern US states, most commonly Kentucky; notably Colonel Sanders of KFC.

   "Colonel" was often used as an honorific, indicating no actual military service: between 1792 and 1916, according to Ron Bryant, a curator at the Kentucky Historical Society, 400 of the 650 colonels commissioned were honorary.

   2002, Kate Chopin and Anna Julia Cooper, “Critiquing Kentucky and the South”, in The Southern Literary Journal, volume 35, number 1, page 127

4. Southern USdatedAn informal title used to address an elderly man.
5. USA form of address for an auctioneer, from the American Civil War practice of commanding officers organizing the public sale of seized goods.

present singular third person colonels · US participle present coloneling · UK participle present colonelling · US participle past coloneled · US past coloneled · UK participle past colonelled · UK past colonelled · alternative obsolete coronel · alternative abbreviation col. · alternative abbreviation Col.

1. intransitiveTo act as or like a colonel.

   Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, And out he rode Colonelling.

   1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, London, page 2

plural Colonels

1. governmentThe military officer title.

   Consequently the necessity for the reorganization of the Guard, during the ten months’ absence of yourself and Colonels Smith and Banks, could not have been averted under our present Military Code.

   1899 March 31, Geo[rge] W[esley] Atkinson, “Status of Members of National Guard, Who were Volunteers In the Spanish War.—Correspondence Between Governor Atkinson and General [Baldwin Day] Spilman.”, in Public Addresses, Etc., of Geo. W. Atkinson, LL. D., D. C. L., Governor of West Virginia, During His Term of Office. […], [Charleston, W.Va.]: […] Public Printer, published 1901, →OCLC, page 291