Definition of "officer" []

• One who holds an office of authority or trust in an organization, such as a corporation or government. (noun)
• One who holds a commission in the armed forces. (noun)
• A person licensed in the merchant marine as master, mate, chief engineer, or assistant engineer. (noun)
• A police officer. (noun)
• To furnish with officers. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "If, not losing that by which he is an officer, in the one case the King would appoint him an official, in the other case not, then is what we earlier called an ˜officer™ indeed an"
• "They arrested a servant of mine for a street quarrel with an officer (they drew upon one another knives and pistols), but as _the officer_ was out of uniform, and in the _wrong_ besides, on my protesting stoutly, he was released."
• "The term officer of the court does not make an attorney equivalent to a judge or other actual employee of the state."