Definition of "lieutenant colonel" [lieutenant colonel]

• A commissioned rank in the U.S. Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps that is above major and below colonel. (noun)
• One who holds this rank. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Four days later cavalry commanded by British lieutenant colonel Banastre Tarleton surprised and routed the Americans at Moncks Corner, cutting off their only escape route and capturing fifty supply wagons and a hundred men."
• "Many of these raids were sponsored by British lieutenant colonel Henry Hamilton, known as the “Hair Buyer” because he promised rewards to his Indians for American scalps."
• "John Bankhead Magruder, No. 15 in the somewhat undistinguished class of 1830 at West Point, had procured transfer from the 7th Infantry to the 1st Artillery in 1831, had earned his brevet as lieutenant colonel during the Mexican War, and thereafter held some of the choicest posts in the artillery."