Word Meanings - ENSIGN - Book Publishers vocabulary database

distinctive mark, badge, flag; in + signum mark, sign. See Sign, and 1. A flag; a banner; a standard; esp., the national flag, or a banner indicating nationality, carried by a ship or a body of soldiers; -- as distinguished from flags indicating

Additional info about word: ENSIGN

distinctive mark, badge, flag; in + signum mark, sign. See Sign, and 1. A flag; a banner; a standard; esp., the national flag, or a banner indicating nationality, carried by a ship or a body of soldiers; -- as distinguished from flags indicating divisions of the army, rank of naval officers, or private signals, and the like. Hang up your ensigns, let your drums be still. Shak. 2. A signal displayed like a standard, to give notice. He will lift an ensign to the nations from far. Is. v. 26. 3. Sign; badge of office, rank, or power; symbol. The ensigns of our power about we bear. Waller. Formerly, a commissioned officer of the army who carried the ensign or flag of a company or regiment. A commissioned officer of the lowest grade in the navy, corresponding to the grade of second lieutenant in the army. Ham. Nav. Encyc. Note: In the British army the rank of ensign was abolished in 1871. In the United States army the rank is not recognized; the regimental flags being carried by a sergeant called the color sergeant. Ensign bearer, one who carries a flag; an ensign.

Related words: (words related to ENSIGN)

• BADGELESS
  Having no badge. Bp. Hall.
• CARRIBOO
  See CARIBOU
• BANNERED
  Decorated with a banner or banners "bannered host." Milton.
• CARRIABLE
  Capable of being carried.
• BANNEROL
  A banderole; esp. a banner displayed at a funeral procession and set over the tomb. See Banderole.
• BADGE
  A carved ornament on the stern of a vessel, containing a window or the representation of one. (more info) AS. beág, beáh, bracelet, collar, crown, OS b in comp., AS. b to bow, 1. A distinctive mark, token, sign, or cognizance, worn on the person;
• BADGERING
  1. The act of one who badgers. 2. The practice of buying wheat and other kinds of food in one place and selling them in another for a profit.
• DISTINCTIVENESS
  State of being distinctive.
• CARRIAGEABLE
  Passable by carriages; that can be conveyed in carriages. Ruskin.
• DISTINCTIVE
  1. Marking or expressing distinction or difference; distinguishing; characteristic; peculiar. The distinctive character and institutions of New England. Bancroft. 2. Having the power to distinguish and discern; discriminating. Sir T. Browne.
• FLAGSHIP
  The vessel which carries the commanding officer of a fleet or squadron and flies his distinctive flag or pennant.
• BADGER STATE
  Wisconsin; -- a nickname.
• NATIONALNESS
  The quality or state of being national; nationality. Johnson.
• INDICATOR
  A pressure gauge; a water gauge, as for a steam boiler; an apparatus or instrument for showing the working of a machine or moving part; as: An instrument which draws a diagram showing the varying pressure in the cylinder of an engine or pump at
• INDICATIVELY
  In an indicative manner; in a way to show or signify.
• BANNER
  fr. LL. baniera, banderia, fr. bandum banner, fr. OHG. bant band, strip of cloth; cf. bindan to bind, Goth. bandwa, bandwo, a sign. See 1. A kind of flag attached to a spear or pike by a crosspiece, and used by a chief as his standard in battle.
• CARRIAGE
  carriage, cart, baggage, F. charriage, cartage, wagoning, fr. OF. 1. That which is carried; burden; baggage. David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage. 1. Sam. xvii. 22. And after those days we took up our carriages and
• DISTINGUISHABLE
  1. Capable of being distinguished; separable; divisible; discernible; capable of recognition; as, a tree at a distance is distinguishable from a shrub. A simple idea being in itself uncompounded . . . is not distinguishable into different ideas.
• DISTINGUISH
  1. To make distinctions; to perceive the difference; to exercise discrimination; -- with between; as, a judge distinguishes between cases apparently similar, but differing in principle. 2. To become distinguished or distinctive; to make one's self
• DISTINGUISHMENT
  Observation of difference; distinction. Graunt.
• CONTRADISTINGUISH
  To distinguish by a contrast of opposite qualities. These are our complex ideas of soul and body, as contradistinguished. Locke.
• INDISTINGUISHABLE
  Not distinguishable; not capable of being perceived, known, or discriminated as separate and distinct; hence, not capable of being perceived or known; as, in the distance the flagship was indisguishable; the two copies were indisguishable in form
• COINDICATION
  One of several signs or sumptoms indicating the same fact; as, a coindication of disease.
• INTERNATIONAL
  1. Between or among nations; pertaining to the intercourse of nations; participated in by two or more nations; common to, or affecting, two or more nations. 2. Of or concerning the association called the International. International code
• TORSION INDICATOR
  An autographic torsion meter.
• BLACK FLAGS
  An organization composed originally of Chinese rebels that had been driven into Tonkin by the suppression of the Taiping rebellion, but later increased by bands of pirates and adventurers. It took a prominent part in fighting the French during their
• BADGER
  An itinerant licensed dealer in commodities used for food; a hawker; a huckster; -- formerly applied especially to one who bought grain in one place and sold it in another.
• KNIGHT BANNERET
  A knight who carried a banner, who possessed fiefs to a greater amount than the knight bachelor, and who was obliged to serve in war with a greater number of attendants. The dignity was sometimes conferred by the sovereign in person on the field
• STANDARD
  The proportion of weights of fine metal and alloy established by authority. By the present standard of the coinage, sixty-two shillings is coined out of one pound weight of silver. Arbuthnot. (more info) extendere to spread out, extend,
• IMAGINATIONALISM
  Idealism. J. Grote.
• SCARRING
  A scar; a mark. We find upon the limestone rocks the scarrings of the ancient glacier which brought the bowlder here. Tyndall.