Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An officer responsible for the food, clothing, and equipment of troops.
  • noun A petty officer responsible for the steering of a ship.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Milit, a regimental staff-officer, of the relative rank of lieutenant, whose duties are to superintend the assignment of quarters and the distribution of clothing, fuel, and other supplies, to have charge of the barracks, tents, etc., of a regiment, and to keep the regimental stores on the march: he directs the marking out of camp.
  • noun Nautical, a petty officer who has charge of the steering of the ship, the signals and soundings, and the running lights, leads, colors, log, compasses, etc., as an assistant to the navigator.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mil.) An officer whose duty is to provide quarters, provisions, storage, clothing, fuel, stationery, and transportation for a regiment or other body of troops, and superintend the supplies.
  • noun (Naut.) A petty officer who attends to the helm, binnacle, signals, and the like, under the direction of the master.
  • noun (Mil.) in the United States a staff officer, who has the rank of brigadier general and is the chief officer in the quartermaster's department; in England, an officer of high rank stationed at the War Office having similar duties; also, a staff officer, usually a general officer, accompanying each complete army in the field.
  • noun See Sergeant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun military An officer whose duty is to provide quarters, provisions, storage, clothing, fuel, stationery, and transportation for a regiment or other body of troops, and superintend the supplies.
  • noun nautical A petty officer who attends to the helm, binnacle, signals, and the like, under the direction of the master.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an army officer who provides clothing and subsistence for troops

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word quartermaster.

Examples

  • Billy Stobie, the UDA so-called quartermaster who provided the weapons used to shoot the lawyer was later revealed as an RUC Special Branch agent.

    Pat Finucane's family's anger over inquiry decision 2011

  • McKevitt was the Provisional IRA's so-called 'quartermaster' until the late 1990s during which he was in charge of its guns, explosives and ammunition dumps.

    Real IRA founder denies receiving tip off 2011

  • It was quite evident the quartermaster was the fittest man for the mission.

    In Search of the Castaways 2003

  • "Helm doesn't answer, sir," called the quartermaster at the wheel.

    Hornblower And The Hotspur Forester, C. S. 1962

  • For the punishment of small offences which are not provided for by the articles, and which are not of consequence enough to be left to a jury, there is a principal officer among the pirates, called the quartermaster, of the men's own choosing, who claims all authority this way, excepting in time of battle.

    Great Pirate Stories Joseph Lewis French 1897

  • In some way he feels that the disappearance of the quartermaster is a connecting link in the chain of circumstance.

    A War-Time Wooing A Story Charles King 1888

  • The clerk looked up from his desk and said he was sorry, but the quartermaster was the only man who knew the combination, and he had gone over to Camp Merritt.

    Ray's Daughter A Story of Manila Charles King 1888

  • It was quite evident the quartermaster was the fittest man for the mission.

    In Search of the Castaways 1873

  • The quartermaster was a very intelligent fellow, and he took in the situation at a glance.

    Four Young Explorers or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics Oliver Optic 1859

  • Benjamin, who didn 't give his last name, showed us around the town and told us he had acted as a kind of quartermaster during the filming.

    Journey to the Jade Sea Ben Wright 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.