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Ensign   /ˈɛnsən/   Listen
noun
ensign  n.  
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."
2.
A signal displayed like a standard, to give notice. "He will lift an ensign to the nations from far."
3.
Sign; badge of office, rank, or power; symbol. "The ensigns of our power about we bear."
4.
(a)
Formerly, a commissioned officer of the army who carried the ensign or flag of a company or regiment.
(b)
A commissioned officer of the lowest grade in the navy, corresponding to the grade of second lieutenant in the army. 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.



verb
Ensign  v. t.  
1.
To designate as by an ensign. (Obs.) "Henry but joined the roses that ensigned Particular families."
2.
To distinguish by a mark or ornament; esp. (Her.), by a crown; thus, any charge which has a crown immediately above or upon it, is said to be ensigned.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Ensign" Quotes from Famous Books



... The garrison made one of the bravest defences of the whole war, and the hand-to-hand fight was of the most furious character. It lasted for five hours, when the fort was obliged to surrender, the garrison of 2,300 men becoming prisoners of war. It was in this fearful struggle that Ensign "Bob" Evans, who was with the naval force that charged up the unprotected beach, was so frightfully wounded that it was believed he could not live. When the surgeon made ready to amputate his shattered leg, Bob, who had secured possession of a loaded ...
— Dewey and Other Naval Commanders • Edward S. Ellis

... sloop. Gave them chase, the sloop laying to for us, & the brigantine making the best of her way to the leeward. We presently came up with the sloop, & when in gun shot, hoisted our pennant. The compliment was returned with a Spanish ensign at mast head, and a gun to confirm it. We then went alongside of him & received his broadside, which we cheerfully returned. He then dropped astern, & bore away before the wind, crowding all the sail he could, and we, having tacked ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, No. 48, October, 1861 • Various

... be a sloop and standing for the harbour. Thereupon the Partan and Jamie Ladle jumped into a small boat and pulled out. Dubs, who had come from Scaurnose on the business of the conjuration, had stepped into the stern, not to steer but to show a white ensign—somebody's Sunday shirt he had gathered, as they ran, from a furze bush, where it hung to dry, between ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald

... letter of the 5th of July of that year—the letter, directed to his so-called subjects, in which he waves aloft the white flag of the Bourbons. This rare miscalculation—virtually an invitation to the French people to repudiate, as their national ensign, that immortal tricolour, the flag of the Revolution and the Empire, under which they have won the glory which of all glories has hitherto been dearest to them and which is associated with the most romantic, the most heroic, the epic, the ...
— A Little Tour in France • Henry James

... showed himself to be a vulgar, mean-souled wretch, and was most properly reprimanded by his lordship. To be a bagman is to be humble, but not of necessity vulgar. Pomposity is vulgar, to ape a higher rank than your own is vulgar, for an ensign of militia to call himself captain is vulgar, or for a bagman to style himself the "representative" of Dobson and Hobson. The honest auctioneer, then, will not call his room his study; but his "private room," or his office, ...
— The Fitz-Boodle Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray


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