ensign
see also: Ensign
Etymology

From Middle English ensigne, from Old French enseigne, from Latin īnsignia, nominative plural of īnsigne, meaning marked, distinguished.

Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈɛn.sɪn/, IPA: /ˈɛn.sən/, [ˈɛn.sn̩] IPA: /ˈɛn.saɪn/
Noun

ensign (plural ensigns)

  1. A badge of office, rank, or power.
  2. The lowest grade of commissioned officer in the United States Navy, junior to a lieutenant junior grade.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
      The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.
  3. A flag or banner carried by military units; a standard or color/colour.
    Synonyms: ancient
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene iv]:
      Hang up your ensigns, let your drums be still,
  4. (nautical) The principal flag or banner flown by a ship (usually at the stern) to indicate nationality.
  5. Any prominent flag or banner.
    • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:
      Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced.
  6. (historical) A junior commissioned officer in the 18th and 19th centuries whose duty was to carry the unit's ensign.
Synonyms Translations Translations Verb

ensign (ensigns, present participle ensigning; simple past and past participle ensigned)

  1. (obsolete) To designate as by an ensign.
  2. To distinguish by a mark or ornament.
  3. (heraldry) To distinguish by an ornament, especially by a crown.
    Any charge which has a crown immediately above or upon it, is said to be ensigned.

Ensign
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
  2. A hamlet in Vulcan County, Alberta.
  3. A minor city in Gray County, Kansas, named after founder G. L. Ensign.
  4. A twp in Delta County, Michigan.
  5. (Mormonism) The official magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints



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