CAPTAIN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does captain mean? 

• CAPTAIN (noun)
  The noun CAPTAIN has 7 senses:

1. an officer holding a rank below a major but above a lieutenant

2. the naval officer in command of a military ship

3. a policeman in charge of a precinct

4. an officer who is licensed to command a merchant ship

5. the leader of a group of people

6. the pilot in charge of an airship

7. a dining-room attendant who is in charge of the waiters and the seating of customers

  Familiarity information: CAPTAIN used as a noun is common.

• CAPTAIN (verb)
  The verb CAPTAIN has 1 sense:

1. be the captain of a sports team

  Familiarity information: CAPTAIN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CAPTAIN (noun)

Sense 1

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 2

Meaning:

The naval officer in command of a military ship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

captain; skipper

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 3

Meaning:

A policeman in charge of a precinct

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

captain; police captain; police chief

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 4

Meaning:

An officer who is licensed to command a merchant ship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

captain; master; sea captain; skipper

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)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The leader of a group of people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

captain; chieftain

Context example:

a captain of industry

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 6

Meaning:

The pilot in charge of an airship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

captain; senior pilot

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 7

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

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

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

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

• CAPTAIN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they captain    ... he / she / it captains   
Past simple: captained   
Past participle: captained   
-ing form: captaining   

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)

 Context examples 

Louis has also given me additional information about Death Larsen, which tallies with the captain’s brief description.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When I got back with the basin, the doctor had already ripped up the captain's sleeve and exposed his great sinewy arm.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She was a five-hundred-ton boat, and besides her thirty-eight gaol-birds, she carried twenty-six of a crew, eighteen soldiers, a captain, three mates, a doctor, a chaplain, and four warders.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The first officer, Mr. Jack Crocker, had been made a captain and was to take charge of their new ship, the Bass Rock, sailing in two days’ time from Southampton.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I take only the money in a linen bag, and the box of rose colored sugar which is a gift from my captain to the Lady Loring.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Why, that requires not this preparation; ye need not have come thus far and dragged your captain to the shame of a defeat merely to prove yourselves cowards.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He would quit drinking, work up, and become a captain.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The largest of the two pirate ships was commanded by a Japanese captain, who spoke a little Dutch, but very imperfectly.

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

Captain Wentworth looked round at her instantly in a way which shewed his noticing of it.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The old captain spoke of the promotions by Parliamentary interest which had put many a youngster into the captain’s cabin when he should have been in the gun-room.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)