colonels

Noun

colonel (plural colonels)

1. A commissioned officer in an armed military organization, typically the highest rank before flag officer ranks (generals). It is generally found in armies, air forces or naval infantry (marines).
   • The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it. […] But there was not a more lascivious reprobate and gourmand in all London than this same Greystone.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
2. (historical) A military leader, distinct from the modern professional military rank.
   • General Charles-Maximilian Fiennes was made colonel of the army.2009, Ranulph Fiennes, chapter 21, in Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expedition Round My Family, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 284
3. An honorary civilian title bestowed by some southern US states, most commonly Kentucky; notably Colonel Sanders of KFC.
   • "Colonel" was often used as an honorific, indicating no actual military service: between 1792 and 1916, according to Ron Bryant, a curator at the Kentucky Historical Society, 400 of the 650 colonels commissioned were honorary.2002, Kate Chopin and Anna Julia Cooper, “Critiquing Kentucky and the South”, in The Southern Literary Journal, volume 35, number 1, page 127
4. (Southern US, dated) An informal title used to address an elderly man.
5. (US) A form of address for an auctioneer, from the American Civil War practice of commanding officers organizing the public sale of seized goods.

See all 7 meanings of colonel