captain
UK /ˈkæp.tɪn/ · US /ˈkæp.tən/ noun, verb
Forms captains captaining captained Cap'n
- noun A chief or leader.
- noun The person lawfully in command of a ship or other vessel. “The captain is the last man to leave a sinking ship.”
- noun An army officer with a rank between the most senior grade of lieutenant and major.
- noun A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore.
- noun A commissioned officer in the United States Navy, Coast Guard, NOAA Corps, or PHS Corps of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half). A captain is equal in grade or rank to a United States Army, Marine Corps, or Air Force colonel.
- noun (aviation) A rank qualifying an airline pilot to act as pilot in command of a two-pilot flight crew.
- noun One of the athletes on a sports team who is designated to make decisions, and is allowed to speak for his team with a referee or official.
- noun The leader of a group of workers. “John Henry said to the captain, "A man ain't nothing but a man."”
- verb (intransitive) To act as captain
- verb (transitive) To exercise command of a ship, aircraft or sports team.
- noun The honorific of a captain, especially a ship's captain or a person with the military rank of captain. “These islands were discovered by Captain Cook.”
- noun (before a descriptive word or phrase) Forms a title for a superhero seen as embodying or possessing in high degree the qualities associated with the ensuing phrase “Captain America; Captain Marvel; Captain Hindsight”
- noun (humorous or ironic, by extension from the superhero sense) Forms a title or nickname for a person; typically a nonce coinage
Synonyms
skipper master CAPT Capt. CPT pilot pilot in command supervisor straw boss foreman -man -woman Mister Mc- police captain police chief sea captain chieftain senior pilot headwaiter maitre d'hotel maitre d'
Etymology
From Middle English capitain, capteyn, from Old French capitaine, from Late Latin capitāneus, from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap-.
Doublet of chieftain, also from Old French.
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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.
- noun A military leader; a warrior.
- verb To act as captain of; to lead. [R.]
- adjective Chief; superior. [R.]
Etymology [OE. capitain, captain, OF. capitain, F. capitaine (cf. Sp. capitan, It. capitano), LL. capitaneus, capitanus, fr. L. caput the head. See under Chief, and cf. Chieftain.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “captain”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details