Library / English Dictionary

CAPTAIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A dining-room attendant who is in charge of the waiters and the seating of customers

Synonyms:

captain; headwaiter; maitre d'; maitre d'hotel

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("captain" is a kind of...):

dining-room attendant; restaurant attendant (someone employed to provide service in a dining room)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The pilot in charge of an airship

Synonyms:

captain; senior pilot

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("captain" is a kind of...):

airplane pilot; pilot (someone who is licensed to operate an aircraft in flight)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "captain"):

group captain (a commissioned officer (especially one in the Royal Air Force) equivalent in rank to a colonel in the army)

Derivation:

captainship (the post of captain)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The naval officer in command of a military ship

Synonyms:

captain; skipper

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("captain" is a kind of...):

commissioned naval officer (a commissioned officer in the navy)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "captain"):

flag captain (the captain of a flagship)

Derivation:

captainship (the post of captain)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A policeman in charge of a precinct

Synonyms:

captain; police captain; police chief

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("captain" is a kind of...):

officer; police officer; policeman (a member of a police force)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "captain"):

Chief Constable (the head of the police force in a county (or similar area))

Instance hyponyms:

Beria; Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria (Soviet chief of secret police under Joseph Stalin; was executed by his associates in the power struggle following Stalin's death (1899-1953))

Derivation:

captainship (the post of captain)

Sense 5

Meaning:

An officer holding a rank below a major but above a lieutenant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("captain" is a kind of...):

commissioned military officer (a commissioned officer in the Army or Air Force or Marine Corps)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Derivation:

captainship (the post of captain)

Sense 6

Meaning:

The leader of a group of people

Example:

a captain of industry

Synonyms:

captain; chieftain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("captain" is a kind of...):

leader (a person who rules or guides or inspires others)

Derivation:

captain (be the captain of a sports team)

Sense 7

Meaning:

An officer who is licensed to command a merchant ship

Synonyms:

captain; master; sea captain; skipper

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("captain" is a kind of...):

officer; ship's officer (a person authorized to serve in a position of authority on a vessel)

Instance hyponyms:

Captain Kidd; Kidd; William Kidd (Scottish sea captain who was hired to protect British shipping in the Indian Ocean and then was accused of piracy and hanged (1645-1701))

Derivation:

captainship (the post of captain)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be the captain of a sports team

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "captain" is one way to...):

head; lead (be in charge of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

captain (the leader of a group of people)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I am not going out under human guidance, subject to the defective laws and erring control of my feeble fellow-worms: my king, my lawgiver, my captain, is the All-perfect.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Post-captains may be very good sort of men, but they do not belong to us.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Whereupon the captain tell him that he had better be quick—with blood—for that his ship will leave the place—of blood—before the turn of the tide—with blood.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

One of them was a big, snow-white fellow from Spitzbergen who had been brought away by a whaling captain, and who had later accompanied a Geological Survey into the Barrens.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Captain Hopkins lent me the knife and fork, with his compliments to Mr. Micawber.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He inquired of the cook, the cabin-boy, the captain, concerning the food stores.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I pray he may, and try to be all he believes me, for I love my gallant captain with all my heart and soul and might, and never will desert him, while God lets us be together.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I also drew up a note, to be given to any white merchant or captain of a steam-boat whom the Indian could find, imploring them to see that ropes were sent to us, since our lives must depend upon it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Captain Weston, who had been considered, especially by the Churchills, as making such an amazing match, was proved to have much the worst of the bargain; for when his wife died, after a three years' marriage, he was rather a poorer man than at first, and with a child to maintain.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

At this the robber ran back as fast as he could to his comrades, and told the captain how a horrid witch had got into the house, and had spat at him and scratched his face with her long bony fingers; how a man with a knife in his hand had hidden himself behind the door, and stabbed him in the leg; how a black monster stood in the yard and struck him with a club, and how the devil had sat upon the top of the house and cried out, Throw the rascal up here!

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)