SUBALTERN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does subaltern mean? 

• SUBALTERN (noun)
  The noun SUBALTERN has 1 sense:

1. a British commissioned army officer below the rank of captain

  Familiarity information: SUBALTERN used as a noun is very rare.

• SUBALTERN (adjective)
  The adjective SUBALTERN has 1 sense:

1. inferior in rank or status

  Familiarity information: SUBALTERN used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUBALTERN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A British commissioned army officer below the rank of captain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("subaltern" 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:

subaltern (inferior in rank or status)

• SUBALTERN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Inferior in rank or status

Synonyms:

junior-grade; lower-ranking; lowly; petty; secondary; subaltern

Context example:

a subordinate functionary

Similar:

junior (younger; lower in rank; shorter in length of tenure or service)

Derivation:

subaltern (a British commissioned army officer below the rank of captain)

 Context examples 

I think I was a good, prompt subaltern, and I am very sure that Hands was an excellent pilot, for we went about and about and dodged in, shaving the banks, with a certainty and a neatness that were a pleasure to behold.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Accordingly, they have a subaltern court paid to them by persons of the best rank; and sometimes by the force of dexterity and impudence, arrive, through several gradations, to be successors to their lord.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)