Definition of "sergeant major" []

• Used as a title for a noncommissioned officer serving as chief administrative assistant of a headquarters unit of the U.S. Army or Marine Corps. (noun)
• One who holds this title. (noun)
• Chiefly British A noncommissioned or warrant officer of the highest rank in a company or unit of battalion size. (noun)
• A small damselfish (Abudefduf saxatilis) of warm seas, having a flattened body with dark vertical stripes. Also called cow pilot. (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.

• "Budënny had been a sergeant major in a cavalry division (not the Cossacks, although later he did not object to a myth asserting this)."
• "Probably only the regimental sergeant major and one or two of the troop-sergeants were my equals on horseback, and his lordship congratulated me once or twice on my riding."