MIDSHIPMAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does midshipman mean? 

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

1. a temporary rank held by young naval officers in training

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• MIDSHIPMAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A temporary rank held by young naval officers in training

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

cadet; plebe (a military trainee (as at a military academy))

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

 Context examples 

One might as well be nothing as a midshipman.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He had been several years at sea, and had, in the course of those removals to which all midshipmen are liable, and especially such midshipmen as every captain wishes to get rid of, been six months on board Captain Frederick Wentworth's frigate, the Laconia; and from the Laconia he had, under the influence of his captain, written the only two letters which his father and mother had ever received from him during the whole of his absence; that is to say, the only two disinterested letters; all the rest had been mere applications for money.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I should be very happy, aunt; but Brighton is almost by Beachey Head; and if I could get so far, I could not expect to be welcome in such a smart place as that—poor scrubby midshipman as I am.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She had now seen all that were at home; there remained only two brothers between herself and Susan, one of whom was a clerk in a public office in London, and the other midshipman on board an Indiaman.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

There could be no doubt of his obtaining leave of absence immediately, for he was still only a midshipman; and as his parents, from living on the spot, must already have seen him, and be seeing him perhaps daily, his direct holidays might with justice be instantly given to the sister, who had been his best correspondent through a period of seven years, and the uncle who had done most for his support and advancement; and accordingly the reply to her reply, fixing a very early day for his arrival, came as soon as possible; and scarcely ten days had passed since Fanny had been in the agitation of her first dinner-visit, when she found herself in an agitation of a higher nature, watching in the hall, in the lobby, on the stairs, for the first sound of the carriage which was to bring her a brother.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)