Sergeant

Sergeant, Serjeant, sär′jent, n. a non-commissioned officer of the army and marines next above a corporal, overlooking the soldiers in barracks, and assisting the officers in all ways in the field: a bailiff: a constable: a servant in monastic offices: a police-officer of superior rank.—ns. Ser′geancy, Ser′geantcy, Ser′geantship, office of a sergeant; Ser′geant-at-arms, an officer of a legislative body for keeping order, &c.; Ser′geant-fish, the cobra, so called from the lateral stripes; Ser′geant-mā′jor, the highest non-commissioned officer, employed to assist the adjutant: the cow-pilot, a fish; Ser′geantry, Ser′geanty, a kind of feudal tenure on condition of service due to the king only; Ser′jeant-at-arms, an officer who attends upon the Lord Chancellor with the mace, and who executes various writs of process in the course of a Chancery suit: a similar officer who attends on each House of Parliament, and arrests any person ordered by the House to be arrested; Ser′jeant-at-law, formerly in England the highest degree of barrister, once with exclusive audience in the Court of Common Pleas, their proper dress a violet-coloured robe with a scarlet hood, and a black coif, represented in modern times by a patch of silk at the top of the wig.—Grand sergeanty, a tenure of lands by special honorary service to the king; Petit sergeanty, a tenure of lands by a rent or tender. [Fr. sergent—L. serviens, -entis, pr.p. of servīre, to serve.]