ENSIGN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ensign mean? 

• ENSIGN (noun)
  The noun ENSIGN has 3 senses:

1. a person who holds a commissioned rank in the United States Navy or the United States Coast Guard; below lieutenant junior grade

2. an emblem flown as a symbol of nationality

3. colors flown by a ship to show its nationality

  Familiarity information: ENSIGN used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENSIGN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who holds a commissioned rank in the United States Navy or the United States Coast Guard; below lieutenant junior grade

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("ensign" 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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An emblem flown as a symbol of nationality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

ensign; national flag

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

flag (emblem usually consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth of distinctive design)

allegory; emblem (a visible symbol representing an abstract idea)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Colors flown by a ship to show its nationality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

colors; colours (a flag that shows its nationality)

 Context examples 

“It is the ensign of the Knights of Calatrava,” answered Felton.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For every two-decked ship that carries the white ensign there is a grove the less in England.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They could talk of nothing but officers; and Mr. Bingley's large fortune, the mention of which gave animation to their mother, was worthless in their eyes when opposed to the regimentals of an ensign.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Wounded as he was, it was wonderful how fast he could move, his grizzled hair tumbling over his face, and his face itself as red as a red ensign with his haste and fury.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This was the proximate cause, I suppose, of my dreaming about him, for what appeared to me to be half the night; and dreaming, among other things, that he had launched Mr. Peggotty's house on a piratical expedition, with a black flag at the masthead, bearing the inscription Tidd's Practice, under which diabolical ensign he was carrying me and little Em'ly to the Spanish Main, to be drowned.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

No clang of bugle rose from their stern ranks, but in the centre waved the leopards of England, on the right the ensign of their Company with the roses of Loring, and on the left, over three score of Welsh bowmen, there floated the red banner of Merlin with the boars'-heads of the Buttesthorns.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Nay, Sir Oliver, you had best bide with us, and still show your ensign,” Sir Nigel answered; “for, if I understand the matter aright, we have but turned from one danger to the other.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“These are the levies of France, for I can see the ensigns of the Marshal d'Andreghen, with that of the Lord of Antoing and of Briseuil, and of many another from Brittany and Anjou.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)