Search the Dictionary

authority; a leader; the chief officer of an army, or of any division of it. A leader and commander to the people. Is. lv. 4.

The office of a commander.

The office or rank of a commander. [Obs.]

A governor of a province; a commander. Prescott.

chief gradations in rank are admiral, vice admiral, and rear admiral. The admiral is the commander in chief of a fleet or of fleets.

In Turkey, a commander or chief officer. It is used also as a title of respect.

A commander of a castle or fortress among the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Moors.

-- followed by of; as, we will apprise the general of an intended attack; he apprised the commander of what he had done.

An officer in the United States navy, next above a commander and below a commodore, and ranking with a colonel in the ermy.

The condition, rank, post, or authority of a captain or chief commander. "To take the captainship." Shak.

labor. Sir J. Hayward. Cessation of arms (Mil.), an armistice, or truce, agreed to by the commanders of armies, to give time for a capitulation, or for other purposes.

The head or leader of any body of men; a commander, as of an army; a head man, as of a tribe, clan, or family; a person in authority who directs the work of others; the pricipal actio or agent.

A captain, leader, or commander; a chief; the head of a troop, army, or clan.

The commander or chief of a thousand men.

Chief or commander; in Spanish literature, a title of Ruy Diaz, Count of Bivar, a champion of Christianity and of the old Spanish royalty, in the 11th century.

art of the quarterdeck, usually occupied by the captain. [Written also couch.] [Obs.] The commanders came on board and the council sat in the coach. Pepys.

A commander; the commanding officer of a place, or of a body of men; as, the commandant of a navy-yard.

See Commandery.

n certain honorary orders, the members of the lowest grades as distinguished from knights commanders, knights grand cross, and the like.

To plan; to devise; to arrange. A commander had more trouble to concert his defense before the people than to plan . . . the compaign. Burke.