Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Captain   /kˈæptən/   Listen
noun
Captain  n.  
1.
A head, or chief officer; as:
(a)
The military officer who commands a company, troop, or battery, or who has the rank entitling him to do so though he may be employed on other service.
(b)
An officer in the United States navy, next above a commander and below a commodore, and ranking with a colonel in the army.
(c)
By courtesy, an officer actually commanding a vessel, although not having the rank of captain.
(d)
The master or commanding officer of a merchant vessel.
(e)
One in charge of a portion of a ship's company; as, a captain of a top, captain of a gun, etc.
(f)
The foreman of a body of workmen.
(g)
A person having authority over others acting in concert; as, the captain of a boat's crew; the captain of a football team. "A trainband captain eke was he." "The Rhodian captain, relying on... the lightness of his vessel, passed, in open day, through all the guards."
2.
A military leader; a warrior. "Foremost captain of his time."
Captain general.
(a)
The commander in chief of an army or armies, or of the militia.
(b)
The Spanish governor of Cuba and its dependent islands.
Captain lieutenant, a lieutenant with the rank and duties of captain but with a lieutenant's pay, as in the first company of an English regiment.



verb
Captain  v. t.  To act as captain of; to lead. (R.) "Men who captained or accompanied the exodus from existing forms."



adjective
Captain  adj.  Chief; superior. (R.) "captain jewes in the carcanet."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Captain" Quotes from Famous Books



... as might have been expected, frequently appears in the "political sketches" of HB. He cuts an amusing figure in one where Jonah (Lord Minto) is about to be thrown overboard by Lords Lansdowne, Palmerston, and Duncannon, by order of the captain (Lord Melbourne), to appease the storm raised by Lords Brougham and Lyndhurst in reference to a rumour that Lord Minto (First Lord of the Admiralty), had instructed British cruisers to stop all Sardinian vessels carrying warlike ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt

... by men dissatisfied with their lot in the Old World, it aroused hope. With his usual good judgment, Selkirk had engaged several men whose training fitted them for the work of inducing landless men to emigrate. One of these was Captain Miles Macdonell, lately summoned by Lord Selkirk from his home in Canada. Macdonell had been reared in the Mohawk valley, had served in the ranks of the Royal Greens during the War of the Revolution, and had survived many a hard fight on the New York ...
— The Red River Colony - A Chronicle of the Beginnings of Manitoba • Louis Aubrey Wood

... 'tis," said Timothy Fairway. "Nothing would burn like that except clean timber. And 'tis on the knap afore the old captain's house at Mistover. Such a queer mortal as that man is! To have a little fire inside your own bank and ditch, that nobody else may enjoy it or come anigh it! And what a zany an old chap must be, to light a bonfire when there's no youngsters ...
— The Return of the Native • Thomas Hardy

... Tchulkaturin.... I could think of nothing to say to him in reply to this last insult, and could only gaze after him with fury. 'Till to-morrow,' I muttered, clenching my teeth, and I at once looked for an officer of my acquaintance, a cavalry captain in the Uhlans, called Koloberdyaev, a desperate rake, and a very good fellow. To him I related, in few words, my quarrel with the prince, and asked him to be my second. He, of course, promptly consented, and ...
— The Diary of a Superfluous Man and Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... "Oh, captain! That's all over! I served time for that out in Illinois!" For some strange reason all the insanity had gone out ...
— Tutt and Mr. Tutt • Arthur Train


More quotes...



Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com