Sergeant

·noun The Cobia.

II. Sergeant ·noun A lawyer of the highest rank, answering to the doctor of the civil law;

— called also serjeant at law.

III. Sergeant ·noun A title sometimes given to the servants of the sovereign; as, sergeant surgeon, that is, a servant, or attendant, surgeon.

IV. Sergeant ·noun In a company, battery, or troop, a noncommissioned officer next in rank above a corporal, whose duty is to instruct recruits in discipline, to form the ranks, ·etc.

V. Sergeant ·noun Formerly, in England, an officer nearly answering to the more modern bailiff of the hundred; also, an officer whose duty was to attend on the king, and on the lord high steward in court, to arrest traitors and other offenders. He is now called sergeant-at-arms, and two of these officers, by allowance of the sovereign, attend on the houses of Parliament (one for each house) to execute their commands, and another attends the Court Chancery.