Definition of sergeant
- n. - Formerly, in England, an officer nearly answering to the
more modern bailiff of the hundred; also, an officer whose duty was to
attend on the king, and on the lord high steward in court, to arrest
traitors and other offenders. He is now called sergeant-at-arms, and
two of these officers, by allowance of the sovereign, attend on the
houses of Parliament (one for each house) to execute their commands,
and another attends the Court Chancery.
- n. - In a company, battery, or troop, a noncommissioned
officer next in rank above a corporal, whose duty is to instruct
recruits in discipline, to form the ranks, etc.
- n. - A lawyer of the highest rank, answering to the doctor of
the civil law; -- called also serjeant at law.
- n. - A title sometimes given to the servants of the sovereign;
as, sergeant surgeon, that is, a servant, or attendant, surgeon.
- n. - The cobia.