Found 1 items, similar to Drill sergeant.
English → English (gcide) Definition: Drill sergeant Sergeant \Ser"geant\, n. [F. sergent, fr. L. serviens, -entis, p. pr. of servire to serve. See Serve, and cf. Servant.] [Written also serjeant. Both spellings are authorized. In England serjeant is usually preferred, except for military officers. In the United States sergeant is common for civil officers also.] 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. [1913 Webster] The sergeant of the town of Rome them sought. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] The magistrates sent the serjeant, saying, Let those men go. --Acts xvi. 35. [1913 Webster] This fell sergeant, Death, Is strict in his arrest. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. (Mil.) 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. [1913 Webster] Note: In the United States service, besides the sergeants belonging to the companies there are, in each regiment, a sergeant major, who is the chief noncommissioned officer, and has important duties as the assistant to the adjutant; a quartermaster sergeant, who assists the quartermaster; a color sergeant, who carries the colors; and a commissary sergeant, who assists in the care and distribution of the stores. Ordnance sergeants have charge of the ammunition at military posts. [1913 Webster] 3. (Law) A lawyer of the highest rank, answering to the doctor of the civil law; -- called also serjeant at law. [Eng.] --Blackstone. [1913 Webster] 4. A title sometimes given to the servants of the sovereign; as, sergeant surgeon, that is, a servant, or attendant, surgeon. [Eng.] [1913 Webster] 5. (Zo["o]l.) The cobia. [1913 Webster] 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) (Zo["o]l.) The cow pilot. [1913 Webster] Drill \Drill\, n. 1. An instrument with an edged or pointed end used for making holes in hard substances; strictly, a tool that cuts with its end, by revolving, as in drilling metals, or by a succession of blows, as in drilling stone; also, a drill press. [1913 Webster] 2. (Mil.) The act or exercise of training soldiers in the military art, as in the manual of arms, in the execution of evolutions, and the like; hence, diligent and strict instruction and exercise in the rudiments and methods of any business; a kind or method of military exercises; as, infantry drill; battalion drill; artillery drill. [1913 Webster] 3. Any exercise, physical or mental, enforced with regularity and by constant repetition; as, a severe drill in Latin grammar. [1913 Webster] 4. (Zo["o]l.) A marine gastropod, of several species, which kills oysters and other bivalves by drilling holes through the shell. The most destructive kind is Urosalpinx cinerea . [1913 Webster] Bow drill, Breast drill. See under Bow, Breast. Cotter drill, or Traverse drill, a machine tool for drilling slots. Diamond drill. See under Diamond. Drill jig. See under Jig. Drill pin, the pin in a lock which enters the hollow stem of the key. Drill sergeant (Mil.), a noncommissioned officer whose office it is to instruct soldiers as to their duties, and to train them to military exercises and evolutions. Vertical drill, a drill press. [1913 Webster]