sergeant

plural sergeants · alternative serjant · alternative sergeaunt · alternative serjeant

1. governmentA UK army rank with NATO code OR-6, senior to corporal and junior to warrant officer ranks.

   Synonyms: sarge, sarnt

2. The highest rank of noncommissioned officer in some non-naval military forces and police.

   “Yes, there are two distinct sets of footprints, both wearing rubber shoes—one I think ordinary plimsolls, the other goloshes,” replied the sergeant.

   1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 13, in Well Tackled!

3. historicallawA lawyer of the highest rank, equivalent to the doctor of civil law.

   All other sergeants and barristers indiscriminately (except in the Court of Common Pleas, where only sergeants are admitted) may take upon them the protection and defense of any suitors.

   1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC

4. UKhistoricalA title sometimes given to the servants of the sovereign.

   sergeant surgeon, i.e. a servant, or attendant, surgeon

5. A bailiff.
6. A servant in monastic offices.
7. A fish, the píntano (Abudefduf saxatilis), a species of damselfish.
8. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Athyma; distinct from the false sergeants.

plural Sergeants

1. The title of a sergeant, added before their name.

1. A surname originating as an occupation for a servant.
2. A township in McKean County, Pennsylvania, United States.