Sergeant

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. 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. The sergeant of the town of Rome them sought. Chaucer. The magistrates sent the serjeant, saying, Let those men go. Acts xvi. 35. This fell sergeant, Death, Is strict in his arrest. Shak.

2. A lawyer of the highest rank, answering to the doctor of the civil law; -- called also serjeant at law. [Eng.] Blackstone.

3. A title sometimes given to the servants of the sovereign; as, sergeant surgeon, that is, a servant, or attendant, surgeon. [Eng.]

4. The cobia. Drill sergeant. (Mil.) See under Drill. -- Sergeant-at-arms, an officer of a legislative body, or of a deliberative or judicial assembly, who executes commands in preserving order and arresting offenders. See Sergeant, 1. -- Sergeant major. (a) (Mil.) See the Note under def. 2, above. (b) (Zoöl.) The cow pilot.