officer

plural officers · alternative pronunciation spelling officah · alternative pronunciation spelling officuh

1. One who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization, especially in military, police or government organizations.

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   Huerta was arrested while law enforcement officers were executing a federal search warrant at a Los Angeles business suspected of hiring illegal immigrants and falsifying employment papers, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in a federal court filing. […] A law enforcement officer approached Huerta and told him to leave, then put his hands on Huerta to move him out of the way of a vehicle, the agent wrote.

   2025 June 9, Mónica De Anda, “SEIU President David Huerta released from custody on $50k bond following arrest during ICE raid”, in KABC-TV

2. A respectful term of address for an officer, especially a police officer.

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   Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

3. One who holds a public office.
4. An agent or servant imparted with the ability, to some degree, to act on initiative.

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   Early in the Talmudic period the service was divided between two officers. One was invited to recite the Shema including the benedictions connected with it... After he was through, another man was invited to stand up before the pulpit facing the direction of Jerusalem to recite the prayer proper, i.e., the Amida.

   1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 108

5. colloquialgovernmentA commissioned officer.

present singular third person officers · participle present officering · participle past officered · past officered · alternative pronunciation spelling officah · alternative pronunciation spelling officuh

1. transitiveTo supply with officers.
2. transitiveTo command as or like an officer.

   The regular battalions of the regiment, though officered mainly by Anglo-Welshmen of county families, did not normally contain more than about one Welshman in fifty in the ranks.

   1929, Robert Graves, chapter 10, in Good-Bye to All That, London: Jonathan Cape, page 115

   2 more examples

   Many of our journals are officered by Irish gentlemen, and their gallant brigade does the penning among us, as their ancestors used to transact the fighting in Europe; and engage under many a flag, to be good friends when the battle is over.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 31, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   [A]t least a quarter of those who fought and died in the Great War were prosperous with spacious homes, and to this class belonged nearly all who had ordered and officered the carnage.

   1992, Alasdair Gray, Poor Things, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 306

1. A surname.
2. A suburb of Melbourne in the Shire of Cardinia, Victoria, Australia