Word.ws English Dictionary

post-captains

post-captains is the plural of post-captain.

Meaning of post-captain

Noun

post-captain (plural post-captains)

  1. (UK, informal, obsolete) A captain of the 18th or 19th-century Royal Navy in command of a vessel, with his subsequent promotions almost always determined by seniority rather than merit or ability.
    • The general principle which governs the navies of the old world is... when the Post is attained, then promotion is by inheritance... If a Post Captain in the English navy lives long enough, he is certain of being an Admiral, though not before he is sixty years of age... Hence it is manifest that...1836 March 17, 'Candor', "The Navy", Army and Navy Chronicle, Vol. II, No. 11, p. 173

Questions about post-captains

What is post-captains the plural of?
Post-captains is the plural of post-captain.

Words near post-captains in the dictionary

  1. post-build
  2. post-capitalism
  3. post-capitalist
  4. post-capitalists
  5. post-captain
  6. post-captains
  7. post-card
  8. post-catheterisation
  9. post-catheterization
  10. post-Catholic
  11. post-chaise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: post-captains (page history and authors); post-captain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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